Why I Went to Prison for Oprah

Why I Went to Prison for Oprah
by
Glenn Close

It was a chilly April day when I arrived at the Fishkill Correctional Facility in Fishkill, New York. The officers in charge pointed out where to park in the lot across from the Administration Building. The producers and camera crew from The Oprah Winfrey Show had arrived earlier, allowing time to get their gear through security. We were all there to help tell an amazing story: The story of Roberto Rodriguez and Sergeant Allen Hill. Due to an organization called Puppies Behind Bars, that I had gotten to know through my blog on Fetchdog.com, these two men were going to meet for the first time, brought together by a little, female, yellow Lab called Frankie.

Roberto has been in prison since he was seventeen for taking a life. He is now thirty-three and due to be paroled in June. Sergeant Allen Hill is a 41-year-old veteran of the war in Iraq. He has been in the Army/National Guard for a combined total of 20 years and is still on Active Duty orders. He was injured in November 2007 and came home from Walter Reed Hospital in March 2008, suffering from acute Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the signature injuries of the two wars in which we are now involved. From being the life of the party before he was wounded, loving to wrestle with his boys and engage with his family and community, Allen Hill came home a terrified recluse, unable to leave his house or relate to his devastated family.

Roberto has been involved in Puppies Behind Bars for four years. Frankie was the third dog he has trained. The PBB program is rigorous, demanding that the inmates take responsibility for another living being 24/7; that they learn how to be team players; that they become proficient in the training techniques that will turn their charges into effective service dogs, able to respond swiftly and consistently to at least eighty different commands. The puppies arrive at the prison when they are eight weeks old and are in their training program for 18 months. They sleep in crates in the inmates' tiny cells and are exercised in a prison yard. Needless to say, an amazing bond quickly forms between the inmates and the dogs they train. For most of the men, it is the first time they experience love, certainly the kind of unconditional love that only a dog can give.
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Why I Went to Prison for Oprah