Research

Project POOCH has had several research studies done during our the last 18 years.

  • 2022: Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) & Project POOCH are pairing up to understand how Project POOCH is serving the MacLaren community and meeting its mission of changing the lives of incarcerated youth. We are looking to the data to answer the following questions: is the effectiveness of Project POOCH increasing, decreasing, or staying the same? Is participation in Project POOCH correlated with lower recidivism rates overall as well as compared to other high-tag youth?

  • 2018: Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) & Project POOCH paired up to research the time period of 2003–2017; focused solely on recidivism rates.

  • 2007: Kate Davis, M.S.W. “On the occasions when animal welfare advocates and human rights advocates find they have a shared interest in providing humane care to all living creatures, despite their offenses, there exists the potential for a powerful alliance to influence the reformation of care for sheltered dogs and for incarcerated individuals.”

  • 2005: Dr. Sandra Merriam, Pepperdine University. “Program youth interviewed reported that they felt they had changed and improved in the areas of honesty, empathy, nurturing, social growth, understanding, self-confidence, and pride of accomplishment.”

Highlights

  • Project POOCH and OYA have been partners for 25 years.

  • At least 135 youth participated in Project POOCH between 2003 and 2017.

  • 90% were serving Department of Corrections sentences.

  • Most youth participated for about 6 months.

  • 83% of those released to the community had no new felony convictions within 3 years.

Overview: More than 135 youth participated in Project POOCH, Inc.® at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility from 2003–2017*. Project POOCH participants who were released to the community had an average recidivism rate of 17–21% after 3 years. This compares favorably to that of all male DOC youth released from OYA facilities, which averaged around 23% for the same time period.

*This pulls from available data which is incomplete. Prior to 2012, enrollment records were maintained solely by Project POOCH, and prior to 2003 there were no digital records. Starting in 2012, enrollment has also been tracked in OYA’s electronic system. Data from 2010–2011 are also missing.

“When I started at Project POOCH I had never had a good experience with a dog, so I was kind of scared. But I quickly realized that the dogs weren’t scary, they just wanted predictability and love. Which was the same thing that I wanted. Some of my favorite times at POOCH were just sitting and being quiet with my dog.”
— POOCH Youth

Two social scientists have studied the benefits of the Project POOCH program for its youth participants.

2005: Dr. Sandra Merriam, Pepperdine University

Sandra Merriam, Ph.D., Pepperdine University, surveyed MacLaren staff and youth enrolled in the program in structured interviews. She reported the following:

Based on survey responses from the staff at MacLaren, the youths who participated in Project POOCH showed marked behavior improvement in the areas of respect for authority, social interaction and leadership.

Program youth interviewed reported that they felt they had changed and improved in the areas of honesty, empathy, nurturing, social growth, understanding, self-confidence and pride of accomplishment.

Dr. Merriam reviewed recidivism data and found zero recidivism among the Project POOCH youth she interviewed. (2005)

2007: Kate Davis, M.S.W.

Kate Davis, M.S.W., presented her study titled Perspectives of Youth in an Animal-Centered Correctional Program: A Qualitative Evaluation of Project Pooch at the December 2007 National Technology Assessment Conference on Animal Assisted Programs for Youth-At-Risk sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States and the Center for Prevention of Youth Violence of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

This study was reviewed and approved by the Human Subjects Review Board (HSRB) of Portland State University. The researcher and her assistant conducted ethnographic interviews and focus groups with Project Pooch youth and MacLaren staff followed by formal interviews with a sample of 14 program participants (ages 17–22).

The researcher summarized in reference to Project POOCH, as well as other Prison Based Animal Programs (PAPs):

On the occasions when animal welfare advocates and human rights advocates find they have a shared interest in providing humane care to all living creatures, despite their offenses, there exists the potential for a powerful alliance to influence the reformation of care for sheltered dogs and for incarcerated individuals.