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Opinion: Should Reunited Pet Cabins Be Introduced For Malta’s Prison?

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Last December, the Purina Reunited Pet Cabin was officially inaugurated by Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne at Mater Dei Hospital.

Should we also consider setting up a pet cabin at Corradino Correctional Facility considering the positive side effects research has found when using animal-assisted interventions with inmates?

The original idea was to have a place on hospital grounds where patients could reunite with their pets, which was endorsed by Purina, as they are firm believers that people “are better with their pets”.

We are slowly seeing animals being introduced into elderly homes, residences, and day centres for the vulnerable, which makes sense given that the positive side effects animals have on people’s well-being cannot be negated.

However, the same results have also been found in prison populations.

A meta-analysis on the effects of dog-assisted interventions was carried out in 2021 by Villafaina-Domínguez et al.

These interventions had prisoners carrying out activities related to dog training, caring for the dog, or activities of both a vocational and an educational kind. This analysis concluded that “statistically significant improvements in prisoners were observed” and that such improvements were not only related to mental health but also to recidivism.

Another study by Corleto in 2018 also analysed the benefits of animal-assisted interventions in prison settings and found improvements related to mental well-being in male, female and juvenile populations.

Corleto also raised a valid point of the benefits such interventions also had indirectly on the animals themselves and the community.

In McCormack’s 2016 article, the author recalled the first animal-assisted program which had occurred by accident when an inmate adopted an injured bird in an Ohio prison in 1975.

Therefore, is the idea of prisoners working with animals new, or are we just really late in implementing this beneficial therapeutic technique?

Well in 2010, two abandoned huskies named Bonnie and Clyde were adopted by the Young Offenders’ Unit Rehabilitation Services (Yours) and no one could deny the effectiveness in responsibility and behavior these two animals had with the inmates (or how perfectly they were named, for that matter).

In 2020, prisoners from the CCF reintegrating back into the community volunteered at the Association for Abandoned Animals (AAA) sanctuary as part of a rehabilitation project.

The benefits of animal-assisted interventions have seen prisoners improve in terms of positive behaviour and their own mental well-being given that prison can be causal of mental health issues.

These interventions also go as far as to influence whether or not someone returns to prison and also serve as a strong reinforcement tool for prisoners.

So, this could be the time to formally introduce an animal-assisted initiative, especially in light of the recent success of the Pet Cabin at Mater Dei.

Perhaps, alongside a pet cabin for reuniting prisoners with their own animals, abandoned animals could be re-introduced to CCF so that prisoners can take care of them.

Maybe, this could also extend to caring for local cat colonies or volunteering more frequently at shelters.

Do you think Minister Byron Camilleri should consider this?

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