# Convicts breaking rocks?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convicts-breaking-rocks/672482>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 28, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convicts-breaking-rocks/672482 "2013-10-28T20:28:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convicts-breaking-rocks/672482/61 "2018-06-20T01:04:21Z")

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> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> You can get your dog trained by inmates in Colorado. You can also buy a government horse that was once a wild mustang and has been trained by inmates.

The New York prison system has programs for raising dogs; they train them for work as service dogs. And while they don’t train wild mustangs (which are rare in New York) they do have a horse farm program. They take care of the horses that are retired from mounted police units.

You ever hear the cliche about a family dog being sent to a farm upstate where it can play all day with other dogs? That actually happens with NYPD horses.

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**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convicts-breaking-rocks/672482/62 "2018-06-20T01:25:51Z")

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> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> You can get your dog trained by inmates in Colorado. You can also buy a government horse that was once a wild mustang and has been trained by inmates.\* These are probably pretty plum assignments and not given to everyone but hearing about this just made me want to rob a bank or something.
> 
> In Kentucky, prisoners are taught masonry, specifically, how to make those stone walls you see all over Kentucky. It’s pretty much a lost art, and according to my information prison is the only place the craft is being taught these days. (I have no idea if there’s any demand for it, but those walls are pretty neat.)
> 
> \*A friend of mine bought one. She had to do lots of additional training but this horse became one of her dressage horses. She called the horse “well started.”

I live just a throne’s throw (almost literally - you can see the west wall looking out my kitchen window) from a prison that has a wild mustang training program.

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**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convicts-breaking-rocks/672482/63 "2018-06-21T23:43:11Z")

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> [@Doug\_K](#):
>
> I live just a throne’s throw (almost literally - you can see the west wall looking out my kitchen window) from a prison that has a wild mustang training program.

🙂 Probably not mustangs any more 🙂

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**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2018, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/convicts-breaking-rocks/672482/64 "2018-06-23T11:44:22Z")

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Probably not what you are meaning but prisoners in Concentration camps in German occupied territory were assigned this task (Work Makes You Free). It was normally performed for SS owned companies selling to the state.

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