Dogs are prisoners' best friends

The thick metal door leading into prison groans open and out come Bonnie and Clyde, two white huskies adopted by young inmates at the Corradino Correctional Facility (CCF).

The Samoyeds are accompanied by two convicts, who are allowed to step out of the prison walls for a few supervised minutes to walk the new pets.

"It's great to have them around. They really make a difference to the atmosphere in prison," one of the inmates said.

Bonnie and Clyde are the first pet dogs to enter jail. After having been abandoned by their owner, they were adopted by the Young Offenders' Unit Rehabilitation Services (Yours), that currently hosts 36 young convicted men.

"Apart from offering a home to these lovely dogs, their presence is therapeutic to the inmates," a Yours spokesman said.

"The animals offer a safe channel through which these young men can show affection without having to be on guard. The inmates also learn about responsibilities through the dogs. They take it in turns to walk them, feed and clean them.

"Walking them is also an exercise in trust. They may not feel trusted and, allowing them to walk the dogs outside the prison walls, even though supervised, helps them learn that they too can be trustworthy," the spokesman said. The two dogs, believed to be mother and son, were randomly named Bonnie and Clyde by animal welfare officers who found them chasing horses in Mellieħa earlier in the week.

Ironically, the dogs followed in what should have been the footsteps of their namesake duo - Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow - the well-known American outlaws of the early 1900s. The criminal couple never made it to jail but were killed in a shootout.

The dogs were adopted by CCF by chance after the Yours section responded to an advert to adopt a husky that turned out to already belong to someone.

One of the prison guards then heard about the Samoyeds rescued by the Animal Welfare Department.

On adopting them, the Yours staff immediately took the dogs to Happy Paws where a vet visited them and found that Clyde is about five years old while Bonnie is around eight and has a hip problem which requires medication.

"We started the medication for her and she already seems to be getting better. She was even running around the other day," the spokesman said. The huskies immediately settled in to their new environment and never seemed distracted by the number of inmates in the division.

On the dogs' first day, one of the young men shampooed them while another built them a wooden bed each.

The dogs have free access to the division's yards but their favourite spot seems to be the guardroom where they like to lie on the floor and "look like a white fleece carpet".

"They seem to like music. The other day I was whistling and clapping and Clyde jumped up at me to play," one of the guards said.

The dogs clearly love being cuddled and patted. Whenever someone stops they edge towards the next person close by and demand more affection.

"Since they came here they lightened up the atmosphere. It's nice to have these dogs around to play with. It's great to have something to look after," one inmate said.

Another young man added: "I had a dog at home. I really like having dogs here... She's my princess," he said as he bent over to pet Bonnie, as Clyde barked jealously for attention.