Service Dogs Failure!

Figured it was about time to finish this series, unfortunately, it does not end on a positive note. I have been putting this off for far too long as I have been trying to frame it with less emotion and help you guys understand the circumstances better.

First off I think it is okay to give a little more information about where I work as this process is over, and the fact I have have several people contact me that looked me up and found out for themselves. I work for the State of Florida within the Department of Corrections. I am in one of those strange positions where I work outside the gates but go inside to resolve tech problems. I had hoped to set it up so that Dougal could be in my office during the work day where I could leave him when I went inside the prison. Normally these are short trips. Yes I am a proponent of service dogs NOT going into prisons with their handler. It is dangerous for the dog mainly, but can also be bad for the inmates. Though, ironically, one of the prisons I work in has a service dog training program where the inmates train service dogs for veterans and a prison I sub at has a program to train basic skills for shelter dogs. But anyway...

I was called into the Wardans office for out meeting with legal. Seems they were worried about me keeping Dougal in the office "unsupervised". A lot of "what if something happened to him" and "what if". They were worried about liability and got upset when I pointed out we had humans that were locked up 24/7 and some of those people were isolated 23 hours a day with officers checking on them once an hour. I was told that was apples and oranges, which I disagreed with wholeheartedly. I even pointed out the dog training programs at many prisons around the entire state. This all fell on deaf ears, I could tell this was a done deal. One thing with title 1 is that alternate options can be used and it seems this had already been set before I plunked my tail in the chair.

Their Solution

I was offered a "modified" work schedule. Meaning on very bad days I can leave when needed drive home, about 30 minutes away so to destress and put myself together, as long as I get my 40 hours in a week. I do not think they thought about the "what ifs" when coming up with this option. Me driving a 2 ton missile down the highway. What happens if I have a flashback while driving have a vehicle accident and kill someone or myself? They want liability, I guess they got it. I was also given some information about suicide hotlines and such. It is just so aggravating how hard it is to get people to understand PTSD. Part of me simply wants everyone to experience it for a week or two, just so they can understand.