By: Bill Lambdin

Prison officials marked a major anniversary today at Wallkill Correctional Facility.

For 30 years they've been rescuing thoroughbred horses and helping inmates develop better attitudes with a unique horse therapy program.

NewsChannel 13 went back to Wallkill to check on an inmate we've been following through the program.

A large number of prison inmates are return customers. They get out, offend again, get arrested and return behind bars.

A unique program carried out with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation often breaks that return cycle.

NewsChannel 13 first met Steven Emery six years ago. He was outside in the ice and snow at Wallkill Correctional Facility seven days a week, roughly six hours a day, tending to retired thoroughbred horses.

After getting out, Steven used the patience and respect he developed in the horse therapy program to work at low wage jobs, improving himself and staying out of the trouble he never managed to avoid in his earlier years.

Leaders of the Second Chances Farm program say that's frequently the case when inmates return to the outside world.

Working with these 1,200 pound horses lets prisoners find qualities in themselves that previously had been nowhere to be seen.

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