The Freedom Tails newsletter is a fun, uplifting and heartwarming chronicling of the canine training program at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, WA.  It follows the exploits of the shelter dogs being trained by the inmate trainers during the 12-week program that prepares the dogs to be adopted by private owners.

The newsletter was captured, cataloged and archived by the Historical & Digital Collections Program at the Washington State Library (WSL).  It came to our attention through the Washington State Depository Program which is mandated by law to capture, archive, catalog, and make available to the public publications from state agencies.  More information about the State Depository program can be found here.

The newsletter highlights the biography and photographs of each shelter dog selected for the program.  The circumstances that brought them to the program are as varied as the circumstances of their inmate trainers.  The benefits for the inmates, inmate trainers, dogs and the community are described along with follow ups of how the dogs are doing at their adoptive homes.  It is hard to tell which benefits more from Freedom Tails—inmates, dogs or the community.

If you believe in rehabilitation, second chances and changes of the heart, you may want to follow this newsletter.  If you are interested in adopting a dog or supporting the program, this site may be of interest to you.

–Pam Griffith

As prison librarians we serve a population that does not have a lot of options for getting information.  We can provide service with a smile and enthusiasm or with a negative attitude.  Jeannie Remillard is the most positive person I have ever met.  Even as we face budget cuts that could mean the loss of more valuable staff, Jeannie’s continued optimism has been a shining light for all of us.  Jeannie provides a valuable service to the inmates at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, a service that does not always receive the recognition that it deserves. But then a THANK YOU like this one from a patron on behalf of himself and others arrives in the mail and shows her that all her work is not in vain.  The last 20 years in prison has been a time of great change, but with a smile and enthusiasm Jeannie continues to provide excellent service.

SCCC Greenhouse

Sustainability has become a major buzz word here at Stafford Creek Corrections Center.  By partnering with Evergreen Community College a lot of programs have been started at Stafford Creek that have been a benefit to the inmates as well as to the environment.  Prairie grass from Fort Lewis is being reseeded in greenhouses, honey is being harvested from bees, fresh fruit and vegetables are hitting the dining hall tables, and garbage is being sorted.  However, that is not all that has been happening at Stafford Creek. 

The programs were created to offer sustainability in the prison environment (which can be a very expensive operation) but also to teach the inmates about green jobs and give them a sense of their environment for when they leave the prison.  To that end, lectures about the environment, green jobs, and recycling have been attended by many of the inmates, even those not involved in the actual programs.  Such success has led to the donations of books to the library to give the inmates further information about these subjects.  These books will be added to the collection and made available to all the inmates in the instituion.  After this is done, I will be looking at the long list of suggestions by the inmates and adding to this topic.  Looking at the list I just received today I have found a few more that they would like to see on the shelves. 

Green is becoming a very powerful color and the inmates are joining the revolution.