MANSFIELD, Ohio (WJW) – In Mansfield, an unusual program helps raise orphaned wild animals until they are old enough and strong enough to be released and survive in the wild.

They are animals, including opossums and squirrels, whose birth mother died or was killed, perhaps run over by a car.

Most of the animals are from the Ohio Wildlife Center in Columbus.

“Every year, we take in over 8,500 animals that are orphaned, injured or sick and then our wonderful programs here help to support the raising of our orphaned programs, which is over 70% of our admissions each year,” said David Donahue of the Ohio Wildlife Center.

The juveniles are nursed and cared for by hand indoors before they are taken to outdoor cages where they are exposed to an environment closer to what they would have to survive in the wild.

But this program is not in a zoo or at a typical sanctuary. It is housed inside the Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield.

It’s one of five similar programs at prisons throughout the state.

“Richland started back with us after COVID and their focus is mainly on squirrels and opossums and they are very good at that,” said Donahue. “Ohio Reformatory for Women focuses on rabbits, Marion focuses on the songbird program and we just started up London correctional and Madison correctional on our level one program, which happens to be squirrels.”

The prison is described as a minimum to moderate security facility.

To participate, prisoners are screened. They are supervised by staff members of the prison.

“It’s been the coolest thing I have ever been a part of. I’ve been in this for 26 years. I did a dog program at another facility but this is pretty cool.” said Amanda Rouch, one of the supervisors.

FOX 8 was permitted to speak with prisoners involved in the program but not to video record the interviews.

Denzel has seven years left of a 22-year sentence and said he has been involved in the program for the past year.

“For me, having a large amount of time is debilitating in some sense, but when you have something to take care of, to care for, something to protect, this is conservation. It’s actually important to know that you are actually doing something positive and not just sitting,” he said.

Angela Stuff, the prison’s warden, also believes it is a win-win.

“In a prison setting, I think it does help into the core values of our director, in particular giving hope. If we give them a purpose, we can give them hope. We can give them a skill that they can take back to upon release that they can share with their family and friends,” said Stuff.

“The wildlife center really takes a focus on this because it’s rehabilitation on both sides. It’s giving both the animals and the human a second chance and that’s something we really like to focus on here,” said Donahue.

While the prisoners do create connections with the orphaned animals, efforts are taken to make sure the human imprint on them is something that doesn’t prevent them from surviving when they are released back to the wild.

“The main goal we do (for the animals) is making sure they have a friend and they are not being raised alone,” Donahue said. “Outside as a part of their pre-release program, interactions are just during food time and during times of cage cleaning. We are also doing predator things, making loud noises and doing other things to make them not like a human.”

The program is one of about a dozen vocational programs at the prison.

The squirrel cages are actually built by other prisoners in the carpentry shop.

Along with the animals the Richland prisoners also help multiply mealworms that can be used as food for the songbirds in other programs, providing about 750 pounds of tiny mealworms in just the past three-and-a-half years.

“Absolutely yes, I have seen that it works not only in the wildlife program but other programs, promoting positive behaviors within the prison system,” said Stuff.