A veterinary examination scene in an indoor setting with a large Mastiff dog, medical personnel wearing scrubs, and minimal furniture. 2:18
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The inmate who trains dogs for kids with autism

At 9, Zachary Tucker wouldn't let anyone touch him. The help his parents finally found was inside a Colorado state prison. more

The man they found there is Chris Vogt, prisoner 10765. He was sentenced to 48 years for helping kill a man, and he doesn't dodge it. "I'm in prison on a murder case that I am guilty of," he says.

For years the prison has let inmates train shelter dogs as service dogs for people who are blind or deaf, through a program called Colorado Cell Dogs. Chris went further. He read all he could and taught himself to train service dogs for children with autism. He works with them inside his cell, acting out the problem behaviors himself, and one dog is learning to help a child sleep at night.

A person leans close to a black-and-tan dog in a chain collar, both facing left toward an object. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
The dogs come from local shelters and learn jobs like helping a child sleep at night.

Zach's teacher says he would stop class in tears and curl up in a ball at his desk. His parents, Arthur and Susy Tucker, were desperate. So on weekends they brought their son 200 miles to the state prison to work with Chris, with guards close by.

Zach's dog is Clyde, and Clyde is trained to know when Zach's anxiety is building and gently break the mood. It's working. "I've been calm enough to actually socialize with other kids," Zach says, "which I've never been able to do in a long time."

A young boy with short hair and a plaid shirt looks slightly to his right as he speaks. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
With Clyde's help, Zach says he is calm enough to spend time with other kids.

On a later visit, Zach did something that once would have been unthinkable. He gave Chris a hug.

Chris calls this the thing he gets to do that gives back. When Zach and the other kids come in to work with him, he says, "they don't see the murder no more."

A veterinary examination scene in an indoor setting with a large Mastiff dog, medical personnel wearing scrubs, and minimal furniture. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
At 9, Zachary Tucker wouldn't let anyone touch him.

His family says a prison was the last place they thought they would find help. Chris made a mission out of helping their son, and Zach is one of nine children with autism whose families now lean on him. Plenty of people who hear the story find themselves calling a convicted murderer a good man.