Reddit Wars: Why Are Cats Being Sent To Prison?

A purrrrfect idea or no meowing way?

When a Redditor started the conversation about prisoners being allowed to adopt cats, more than 1,000 people left their thoughts on whether that's a good idea or not.

Reddit user izacktorres started the conversation with, "Prisoners allowed to adopt cats: The idea behind this initiative is to take animals from a cat shelter and place them in the correctional facility so inmates could take care of them. The program quickly proved to be beneficial for both the adorable cats and inmates."

"Hell yes. My bio mom was a felon who had worked with horses off and on her whole life, her favorite was finally getting to work with other felons to care for stable horses and barn animals. I know not everyone who can be but encouraging empathy for some and companionship or responsibility on others is great.

Maybe we could also start to look better hiring for people who are dumped in parole or on release and struggle with any income."

~NeonBrightDumbass

"Emphasizing rehabilitation for prisoners should be the priority, and if animals help get them there, more power to them."

~MattressMaker

"But who sentenced these poor cats to prison? And what were their crimes? Involuntary mouse slaughter?"

~Grand-Chocolate5031

"This seems great except for people like me who are allergic to cats. Then this would be torture."

~TrackPad96

"Burglar HAS to be the most popular name for their Cat. I’ll see myself out."

~Interesting-Gap7359

"We have a dog program and a wild mustang program at the prison I work at! It's in the medium security unit (I'm in maximum) so I don't get to see them much, but it's been really beneficial for the inmates!

One time an inmate beat his dog and got some sweet prison justice from the other inmates who didn't want him to ruin the program for the rest of them."

~twiggykeely

"Won't it create john wick scenarios in prisons?"

~vishc88

"Everyone is blinded by the adorable cat-inmate relationship, yet no one even think why cats are in prisons... Those cats must have done serious crimes (crimes against humanity, hate crimes, war crimes etc.) This is just a facade by these cats so that they'd be taken care of by a hooman whilst confined to prison for their crimes."

~laserghost69420

"This is a great idea. Regardless of what people did, being in a cage for years or life with potentially no-one in there that cares about you or loves you is a rough deal. 100% support giving them pets assuming we can prevent abuse. I'm sure most of them would absolutely adore their pet and you have to know it will make them softer than the average inmate without one. This seems like a no brainer to me. This needs to be done everywhere."

~fyndor

"Oh, so we're gonna reward these assholes with those nice prisoners?"

~BackIn2019

"Not a fan, if you aren't fit to interact with the public I don't want you to carry the responsibility for an animal. And before you get mad at me ask yourself if you would give your pet away to a random criminal. Rehabilitation shouldn't be done on the shoulders of animals as some kind of test."

~NeoTheRiot

"Animals don't judge like people do."

~lickety_split_69

"Until someone wants to get revenge on someone they hate and they torture that person's cat."

~xistithogoth1

"When I was incarcerated in Iowa, we had a program like this with dogs. It was your job to take care of them. You took them out to do their thing, fed them, and all. It was a really good idea! Also, you had to be 6 months discipline free, have no animal abuse on your record, and if you messed up, you were out of the program. A lot of long-term and lifers did the program. Most of the women I met there had just made a mistake in a moment of passion or to survive. I think it shouldn't just be luck em all up. Some violent can be rehabbed too."

~Lanky-Panic