Changing Inmates’ Lives with Man’s Best Friend

Susan Jacobs-Meadows looks beyond the bars that confine men and the cages that hold cast-off dogs. Reaching for the good that she believes they all hold, she brings them together for mutual rehabilitation.

The Peachtree Corners resident is the founder and executive director of Canine CellMates, a nonprofit program that pairs Fulton County jail inmates with dogs caged up on potential death rows. Since its start six years ago, more than 350 men have completed the program and more than 140 dogs have been adopted.

For her program’s efforts, Jacobs-Meadows was recently named a Mercedes-Benz USA Greatness Lives Here hero. The award recognizes unsung heroes making a difference in Atlanta, where MBUSA is headquartered. It came with the gift of a promotional video filmed at the jail that shows inmates training, playing and just sharing some unconditional love with the dogs.

“I think dogs are a gift,” Jacobs-Meadows says in the video. “My belief tells me that God gave dogs something he didn’t give other animals. He gave them the ability to look inside a human being and find the good that exists in there, and then he gave them the ability to help that person see that in themselves.”

Through her program, fueled with the help of 45 active volunteers, thoroughly assessed dogs from Fulton County Animal Services are selected to live in the jail for 10 weeks. Six dogs cycle through pairs of inmates who work with Canine CellMates trainers to make them better candidates for adoption through socialization and obedience training.

The men also attend classes six days a week to focus on resume and interviewing skills, personal development, trauma support, resilience training and basic computer literacy. Speakers are brought in to motivate and inspire them, and Jacobs-Meadows advocates for them in court.

“What I knew would happen is I would fall in love with these dogs. What I didn’t know was I would fall in love with these men,” Jacobs-Meadows said. “We tell them, ‘While you’re here, you’re our family, and for as long as you want us, when you leave, you will still be our family.’”

Upon their release, Canine CellMates will help the men with everything from food, clothing and loaded MARTA cards to help finding drug rehab programs and transitional housing. The program also keeps up with the adopted dogs, some of whom can be seen on the “Happy Tails” page of the program’s website.

Jacobs-Meadows’ immediate goals include acquiring office space and creating a Canine CellMates how-to guide so the program can be replicated by others. Longer-term, she hopes to see Canine CellMates offer its own transitional housing.

The program is funded solely through donations and sponsorships, and visual images are key to telling its story, Jacobs-Meadows said. “I think one of our most important jobs in Canine CellMates is to humanize these men in the eyes of the public,” she said. “When you share their words and their faces, people almost have to start considering them as human beings.”

Learn more

Canine CellMates seeks donations, sponsorships and a wide variety of volunteers. For more info, and to see dogs available for adoption, visit canineCellMates.org. See the Greatness Lives Here video. ■