We studied a program that permitted a selected number of prisoners to keep pets. We observed the physiological and behavioral effects of this contact and retrospectively examined the effect of pet possession on the frequency and severity of disciplinary offenses. The presence of a pet did not affect the rise in blood pressure associated with talking to the experimenters. However, blood pressure during interaction with the pet was always lower than blood pressure during conversation with the experimenters. Pet ownership had a small effect on the number but not the severity of disciplinary offenses. We concluded that this pet program provided valuable recreation for prisoners but had only small and inconsistent effects on antisocial behavior as defined by the prison staff.
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Katcher et al. (1989) studied this question.
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