CASPER, Wyo. — A new animal-assisted therapy program is being started at the Sweetwater County Detention Center, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office said on Wednesday.
After securing support from the Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, the new program will launch as the first of its kind in Wyoming, the SCSO said in a press release.
A specially trained and certified dog from the SCSO will be assigned to a deputy handler at the detention center “to assist with crisis intervention and to support the overall mental health and wellness of juveniles residing at the facility,” the release said.
A grant from the University of Wyoming’s Family to Family Health Information Center will provide funding for the purchase and training of the dog and its handler, the SCSO added.
There are only four county detention centers in Wyoming that are certified to house juvenile offenders, the SCSO said. The Sweetwater County Detention Center held 46 different juveniles in 2021 for periods of between three and 100 days.
“Wyoming ranks among the top ten states in the U.S. with the most at-risk youth facing mental health and substance abuse challenges,” the SCSO said. “For juveniles who find themselves behind bars, recent studies suggest that this subgroup of individuals is even more disproportionately affected, with three out of four juveniles facing incarceration reportedly suffering various mental health and substance abuse issues.”
The SCSO said it hopes the new therapy dog program can help “increase positive communication, lower stress and anxiety, enhance self-esteem, reduce aggression and loneliness, and … increase emotional awareness among its juvenile population.”
Sheriff John Grossnickle said, “The science behind similar animal-assisted therapy programs among law enforcement agencies across the country clearly supports the positive impact that these types of program have on their participants.
“We’re excited, and we hope that it has a huge impact. You hear across Wyoming, ‘We need to do something with mental health.’ Well, at the sheriff’s office we’re tired of hearing that, and so we want to put our best foot forward and do more about it.”
The idea for the program came from Caitlyn Zaragoza, a deputy at the Sweetwater County Detention Center, according to Grossnickle. He also thanked Kirsena Marhal, the grants manager for Sweetwater County, for helping secure the grant funding for the program.
