The primary handlers cycle through acting as facilitators because if they teach enough hours, they are a step closer to being accredited by Assistance Dogs International, a leader in the assistance dog realm.

Every Monday, St. Peter travels to the Pendleton prison for a training class. The rest of the week, facilitators help teach lessons and offer support to the other handlers.

The dogs train on six-month cycles, meaning they interact with six main handlers — three handler teams — during their training.

Summer, the Lab mix, was starting to learn PTSD signs as she began the second stage of training in mid-November. Pierce said that helps the dogs better work with their eventual owners, since the dogs have learned to take cues from all different kinds of people.

After 18 to 24 months of training, the dogs are ready to graduate in a “passing of the leash” ceremony.

“Saying goodbye is hard,” Pierce said, “but I know it’s what we’re here to do.”

Pierce, a facilitator, said the JLAD program also has shifted the way he sees himself.

“I had to come out of my shell and learn to speak in front of people,” he said. “I was forced to step out of my comfort zone.”

But for him, training the dogs is a way to give back or even pay it forward. He has about one year left of his sentence, he said, and the program makes him feel better about himself.

“It’s rewarding,” he said. “I feel ready. I have good life skills.”

Jose Correa, a primary handler who has participated in JLAD for about three years, echoed Pierce. He said the dogs have helped him to be more humble, compassionate and communicative. He is less selfish now, he said, and more outgoing.

“Sometimes,” he said, “it doesn’t even feel like we’re in prison.”

A change has come

Pierce said he’s noticed the way the program has improved not only the lives of the recipients, but also how it has impacted the culture within EOCI.

“There’s more communication, better relationships, between staff and AICs,” he said, abbreviating the recently-adopted term for people in prison, adults in custody.

“It’s hard to capture a cultural change,” Frazier said, bt the numbers do show something.

In the seven years since the program started, 207 handlers have participated and 239 dogs have come through the facility — including in their birthing, well-being and training programs.

Across those 207 handlers, Frazier said, he thinks the participants probably had around 470 incidents of misconduct in the five years before they entered the program, and maybe 50 incidents after. He said knew the exact numbers last year, but can’t find the data and can’t recall the numbers now.

For one handler, Jason Jarrell, the change is evident. Jarrell has been with JLAD for seven years, essentially since its inception.

He will be released in about six months and is planning to train service dogs as his career.

“It’s my calling,” he said.

Frazier said he didn’t think Jarrell would ever get to this point — ready to rejoin society and contribute positively. When Frazier admitted him to the program, other officers thought Jarrell would fail, but instead, he succeeded beyond expectations.

“I was an active gang member. I was extreme,” he said of life before JLAD. “This program taught me how to be selfless. I feel like it was a gift given to me.”

Jarrell is a leader in the program. He has put in his hours as a facilitator and still helps out with teaching as needed. Jarrell is someone any of the handlers can turn to for support or insight.

Starting from scratch

And in fact, on Nov. 17, Jarrell was responsible for the first shift watching over a litter of puppies that had been delivered en route to the prison.

Although all the puppies were meant to be born a few days later in the prison, they came early, so five were born during the car ride up from Salem. This marked the third litter born in (or nearly in) EOCI.

The six puppies — three females and three males, two yellow and four black Labs — were born to 2-year-old Flame, and all will have names starting with the letter “X,” as each litter trained has names from whatever is next in the alphabet. St. Peter said this is their second time through the list.

The handlers get to suggest names for the puppies, though St. Peter has the final say. The final names for this litter are Xtra, Xcel, Xtreme, Xavi, Xos and Xm. There’s another puppy coming into the prison to join this round of training who is called Xce, too.

Pierce was the lucky trainer who got to catch the one puppy born inside EOCI.

“It felt like when my daughter was born,” he said, chuckling.

Puppies are born with their eyes and ears closed. They open during the first few weeks of life. To help keep the puppies safe and healthy at EOCI, they stay inside a rectangular room with three large viewing windows, a whiteboard to track the puppies’ growth and feeding schedule, and a walled and blanketed space to keep them in before they can explore on their own.

Every day, from day one, the puppies receive forms of early neurological stimulation, like putting their paws on different temperatures and textures or cleaning between their paw pads with a cotton swab.

“The guys will press their faces up against the windows trying to see what’s going on,” Pierce said of the birth. Everyone wants to be involved, but too many people in the room at a time can be stressful for the mother, he explained.

One alternate who watched through a window, Chad Pomelow, is about a month into the program. He said he initially applied because he saw how intrigued his 3-year-old daughter was by one of the dogs during a visit and he wanted to take an interest in what she liked.

He said he’s realizing just how much there is to learn, but he’s enjoying being able to see other participants with so much more knowledge know how to handle different situations.

“I’m putting myself in the position to be a better father,” Pomelow said. “I’m willing to work hard to get where I want to be.”