“Meow.”
No, that’s not a line from the classic Broadway show “Cats.” Nor is it an onomatopoeia from a T.S. Eliot poem. It’s a common sound heard on the recreation yard at MacDougall Correctional Institution, a medium custody prison about 30 miles outside Charleston, South Carolina.
More than a few prisons host programs to train canine companions for the elderly, visually impaired, and people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. But MacDougall also houses a rare cat program.
People in prison often experience an intense sense of isolation and loneliness. Family and friends fade away as the years pass. At this prison, feline friends help us endure.
Since the program’s inception in 2018, over 120 kittens and adult cats have found adoptive homes after being cared for by the eight “Cat Carers” who participate in the program. I’ve volunteered for four years.
You can see these Cat Carers in the prison every day, draped in the telltale — or is that telltail? — fluorescent-yellow vests, armed with bags of Tender Vittles and Little Friskies, filling bowls with food and water.
What, no milk?
“Milk is not really a good choice for cats,” said Joshua Lawson, a lead caregiver in the program. “It simply doesn’t provide the nutrition a healthy cat requires and it can actually lead to dehydration since it often upsets their digestive systems.”
The project evolved from the efforts of a maintenance supervisor who began bringing food for the stray cats who took up residence at the prison.
In 2018, the warden at the time asked the programs supervisor, Michael Arnold, to assume leadership in developing a program with the cats. Local groups, including the Berkeley Animal Center and Charleston Animal Society, donate food monthly, and almost all of the cats have been spayed or neutered, according to Lawson. In the last four years, almost 20 cats have been part of the program.
Before the spay and neuter operation started in 2024, nearly 100 new kittens were born annually at the prison.
The program brought the cats protection. “This part of South Carolina is prone to torrential rains during the hurricane season,” said Corey Adams, one of the first cat caregivers in the program. “It can run from June to December, so once the cat project became an official program, the prison carpentry shop constructed an outdoor kennel to provide shelter for cats awaiting veterinary care, acclimate new cats to human contact and provide safety during storms.”
Adams left prison in 2024, and went home with his feline friend, India.
Changes in the economy since the COVID-19 pandemic have greatly reduced donations to the program. Medical care is now primarily on an as-required basis. A grant secured by Arnold ran out and local shelters and animal organizations were overrun. Some local pet lovers have rallied and provided assistance. Combined with donations from staff donations and prisoners’ families, that gap in needed services has narrowed.
MacDougall has no verifiable statistics, but staff told me that prisoners involved in the prison cat care project are less likely to incur a disciplinary infraction. Mental health professionals said the cats have had a calming effect, regardless of a person’s conviction or past behavior.
Prisoners name all the cats. There’s Bootsy, a striped feline with solid white paws; Bandit, a calico with a raccoon-like mask; plus Boo-boo, Blackie, Bubba, Snowball and many more.
As one guard quipped: “It’s a bit humorous to see a 200-pound ‘hard’ convict get all sentimental over an itty-bitty kitten and speak baby talk.”
