CATS IN PRISON:
Lady Serves Up Emotional Support & Reduces Anxiety
In spite of the many efforts to reach out to those in prison, incarceration can be a dehumanizing place. But, in Indiana’s centuries-old Michigan City prison, there is a bright spot: A cadre of kitties that live among some of the toughest people around.
In a maximum security facility that once housed John Dillinger, there are 50 cats, who are lovingly cared for by a lucky few, and enjoyed by many more. David McQuaid, an inmate for many years, writes that “every morning, I wake up to two lemon-colored eyes peering at me. They belong to a delicate and regal Persian-domestic mix named Lady, with short, feathery ebony fur. She is my only friend in this dismal mansion of dejection known as prison.”
According to McQuaid, the cat program started nearly 20 years ago when a group of prisoners working maintenance in the sewage tunnels below the Michigan City facility found a deceased female cat and her litter of squalling hungry kittens. They were so young they had not yet opened their eyes.
Under a sympathetic administration, the kittens were permitted to be cared for by inmates who bottle-fed them back to good health in their cells. As more residents asked to participate and morale grew, the cat program was initiated. There’s an application and approval process for each inmate who wants a cat. Once adopted, the cats live in the inmates' cells for the duration of the prisoner’s stay—which can be a life sentence, and the prisoners have something in their lives that gives them unconditional love.
Today, the prison partners with a local cat shelter, which provides additional cats that would otherwise be euthanized. They supply food, litter, toys, treats at a reasonable cost, that are paid for by the cat owner-inmate out of his pay for working in the prison. McQuaid says he earns about $100 a month and does without some things to be able to support Lady, whose expenses run around $30.
Meanwhile, the idea of having cats in prison is more than a nice idea. Studies show that cats can serve as emotional support animals as they reduce stress, improve mental health, and alleviate feelings of loneliness. These inmates, in particular, admit to loving their feline charges and have a deep connection to them.
I am not in the position to argue with Mr. McQuaid. If he feels that prison is a “dismal mansion of dejection,” I guess he would know. But a prison administration that over the years has fostered inmate cat adoption cannot be without heart.
Nancy
