Incarcerated women train service dogs to detect disabling conditions

As seen on ABC News

"Service dogs ...help us grow... and heal our own wounds," said one inmate.

By: Matt Gutman, Ashley Santoro, Mack Muldofsky, Lauren DiMundo, Brooke Stangeland, Sunny Antrim and Joseph Maronski

Natalie Tapio has been living with a chronic seizure disorder, but with her service dog Dexter by her side, managing her condition has become just a little easier as he’s alerted her when she’s about to seize. 

Natalie started experiencing catatonic seizures, a form of epilepsy, in 2014, which caused periods of semi-consciousness that rendered her unable to move. Just 6 months later, she was suffering multiple, potentially debilitating seizures a day, and they could happen at any time. Natalie’s doctors soon identified abnormal brainwaves after performing an EEG.

Natalie Tapio uses her service dog Dexter to help manage her chronic seizure disorder.

[ABC]

“The seizures were so unpredictable and silent, usually, and so there  always has to be someone very attentive close by,” Tapio said. “[My] mom and I were basically inseparable. She would come into the bathroom with me when I needed to bathe or do anything. Really ... wherever I went, she went.”

Her life changed 3 years ago, however, after she learned about seizure alert dogs and eventually met Dexter.

“[Dexter] will alert me and then dial a dog phone, which has my parents’ phone numbers on it, and then [he] retrieves a pouch which will have any necessities for me, like medication, water [and] my cell phone.”

Dexter was raised by what some might consider an unlikely group of trainers: inmates at the California Correctional Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California. Some of the women there are volunteers with Pups Uplifting Prisoner’s Spirits, or PUPS. The prison program is run by the non-profit Little Angels Service Dogs, a nationwide team that trains service dogs to help people living with disabilities and disabling conditions.

Dogs in training with the Pups Uplifting Prisoner's Spirits (PUPS) program at the California Correctional Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California.

[ABC]

It was at the prison that ABC News met the group of women, all convicted felons, who’ve been training the dogs that might one day save people’s lives. Many of the women said the program has presented them with an opportunity for personal redemption.

“This isn't just about training a dog,” said Amy Davis, an inmate at the prison. “[We] are training service dogs that save lives, and it's about what the service dogs do to us to help us grow and continue to grow, and to heal our own wounds. You can't be in this program and not grow. It doesn't work [like that].”

Amy Davis is an inmate at the California Correctional Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California.

[ABC]

Through the PUPS program, inmates have helped train dogs that have assisted medical technicians, people with autism and psychiatric conditions and people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Dana Froomin, the prison program manager for Little Angels Service Dogs, admitted that she was initially concerned for the dogs safety when she was tasked with starting the PUPS program in 2017. Her concerns waned, she said, when she met the women at the prison. She said it’s even more rewarding to see the changes occurring in the inmates than the dogs.

Dana Froomin in the prison program manager for Little Angels Service Dogs.

[ABC]

The dogs graduate from their training after 12 to 18 months, and are then sent to one of two Little Angels ranches in San Diego, California, or New Hampshire. Once they arrive, they go through advanced training to perfect their skills before they are eventually paired with a recipient or released from the program.

Any inmate can apply to participate in the program, says Froomin. Once they submit an application, they are selected based on three main criteria: physical and mental health, commitment level and their interests. Once selected, inmates sign on for a two-year commitment where they care for and train a dog 24/7.

Inmate Amber Ingram is the lead trainer with the PUPS program.

[ABC]

“When I got here, I realized that these are women with stories, and they're heart-wrenching stories, and they were so open and honest,” said Froomin. “It changed me because I realized that the dogs weren't just changing the recipients' lives, they were changing [the inmates’] lives, and then they changed mine.”

Inmate Amber Ingram, the lead trainer in the program, believes that PUPS helps her to deal with the guilt and shame she feels after she was convicted for the second-degree murder of her 5-year-old son Braeden. Ingram said she had been in an abusive relationship when he died and that she had turned a blind eye to the abuse her son faced from her partner.

“I got a phone call from my boyfriend at the time and he basically said my son's not breathing, and I said, ‘What did you do?’ That was my initial reaction. ‘What did you do?’ And he had beaten my son to death.”

Ingram said that she protects the dogs no matter what and it is her way of not only remembering her son but honoring him, too.

“I can't allow anything bad to happen to this dog,” she said. “If someone were to want to kick my dog, I'm jumping in front of it.”

She says she is so protective of the dogs she trains, and says “I do it in honor of my son Braeden every single day.”

Lisa Tapio, Natalie’s mother, found out about seizure alert dogs through a family member and began to research them, eventually coming across Little Angels. After Natalie submitted her medical information, she was accepted into the program.

Once Dexter was paired with Natalie, his first task was learning to paw Natalie’s leg, alerting her when she was on the verge of a seizure. To do this, Lisa was asked to collect her daughter’s “seizure scent” by swabbing Natalie’s hands and the inside of her cheeks before, during and after a seizure. Dexter was trained with those scents and in 2018, he was ready to meet Natalie. 

ABC News' Matt Gutman at the California Correctional Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California.

[ABC]

To Natalie, Little Angels and the women at the PUPS program are saving lives and giving second chances, she said. 

“People with epilepsy often have this constant kind of cloud over their head or worry in the back of their mind of, ‘When will the next seizure happen? Where will I be? What will I be doing,’” she said. “I don't need to have that anymore, and so that's very freeing.”