NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Nashville-based organization is using service dogs to help incarcerated inmates learn transformative skills, and they're asking for help providing supplies for the dogs and pups-in-training.

The program Retrieving Independence provides inmates with a dog to train to give them a sense of purpose, dignity and work ethic. The organization works with incarcerated men and women who train service dogs, then the dogs are then released back out to society.

Dr. Brenda Dew, who passed away in December 2023, co-founded the non-profit with her friend Lesley Adams, back in 2012. They decided to begin the service dog training program in their first facility, the Turney Center Industrial Complex and then moved to the Debra Johnson Rehabilitation Center. They graduated the fi

See Full Page