Cats a therapy for inmates in US prison

By Silvia Ayuso Sep 1, 2011, 4:06 GMT

Washington - The latest residents of the Lincoln County Detention Centre in the US state of Nebraska have little in common with other inmates: Nemo, Sarge and Boots are three cats adopted by county Sheriff Jerome Kramer with the goal of having them exert a positive influence on prisoners.

So far, the experiment, which started in early August, has been a success, Sheriff Kramer told the German Press Agency dpa. 'The two first (cats) are working very well, so we just added a third,' he says.

The third is Boots, who unlike the other two cats was taken to the female section of the jail.

Nemo is a playful cinnamon-coloured cat. His orange stripes are very different from the wide grey stripes of the inmates' uniform, but he is a 'resident' among those prisoners who are allowed to work.

Sarge, white with grey patches, found a 'new home' in the Minimum Security Cell.

Every cat shares common areas or rooms with about 20 inmates, who according to Kramer do not even need a roster to look after the animals because they all seem willing to do their share and like having the cats around.

Kramer, a sheriff with thirty years' experience in policing including stints in the prison environment, had for years contemplated the idea of using pets as a form of therapy for inmates to 'help soothe tension, ease stress and even reduce blood pressure.'

However, he could only really implement it now that the county jail has moved to a new facility.

'We just recently moved to a new jail with a new style of building which allows us to classify our inmates better. And once we got moved here and we could provide a safe environment for the cats, I decided to go ahead and give it a try,' he says.

Kramer got his original idea upon observing the positive effects that cats have in homes for the elderly, or among the sick.

'If it works in a nursing home, why wouldn't it work here? It's the same scenario: people can't get out and we have the same problems with confinement and depression.

'And sometimes spare time turns into mischievous activity, so if we can get their time occupied, that's what we need to do with these inmates, keep their time full, make the days go by, and just let them serve their time and get out of here,' Kramer says.

'We're not here to punish them and we want to get them through here with the least amount of incident. We do what we can and the cats seem to be helping with that,' he adds/

Inmate Guy Meyers, one of the men in charge of looking after Nemo, agrees.

'One of the inmates said they were going to get rid of the cat and I said, 'Oh, no!' They bring out the soft part in you, just like your kids do,' he told local television channel KNOP-TV.

Television showed inmates cuddling the animals, brushing them and throwing toys that the cats were delighted to catch.

Sheriff Kramer smiles as he recalls the prisoners' reaction when he threatened - as a joke, he says, - to take away the cats. Even inmates who were originally reluctant to increase density within the jail by adding to the 80-90 men some four-legged 'prisoners' now appear to be very happy with their new fellows.

'Now they say, 'We want to keep the cats.' They've had a whole change of heart,' Kramer says.

There hasn't been any complaints over possible allergies, he says. And the cats, who were previously living in a shelter for stray animals, seem to like the idea of spending the rest of their lives behind bars.

'These cats could have been on the road to being euthanized,' Kramer says. Now, they have 'a nice home.'

'They are just loved and are going to be taken care of, they've got a soft bed and toys and they couldn't have it any better.'