Paws In Prison

Charles Couch has been in prison for 3 decades. He is facing a life sentence, convicted for what he refers to as a crime of passion.

“I caught my wife with another man together and I killed them both. And that was 33 years ago almost,” he told KATV.

No one would expect a man like Couch to have a soft or compassionate side. But then he met Honey, a rescue dog in the Paws in Prison program. The Arkansas Depart of Correction prison is marrying prisoners with the pups on “doggy death row.”

The rescues are each trained by prisoners, which will make them ready for adoption, and able to avoid being euthanized. Though it may sound unusual, unconventional methods to reach the hardened crowd of inmates have seen a ton of success. In some prisons, the inmates are reformed by training horses!

“She’s taught me — I don’t know, to love again I guess,” Couch says of Honey. She’s the third dog he has trained but perhaps the most special to him. Unlike the other dogs he has trained, he lets Honey sleep in the bed with him.

“When they come to us they’re getting their second chance. When they go to their new owner, they’re getting paroled, they’re getting clemency,” Couch says.

Another inmate, William Bentley, is learning a lot about himself through the program as well. Bentley was convicted of aggravated robbery.

“He’s taught me patience, responsibility. I’m not used to having to take care of anybody other than myself. On the street my mama was taking care of me so it taught me how to take care of something other than me,” he says. “I was anti-social and having him has made me social because everybody wants to pet the dog. Everybody wants to rub him and see him and talk to him and I have to deal with them also.”


The Paws in Prison program has been shown to reduce violence in prison and turn the lives of these inmates around.