POWELL — Sharon Young estimates she cared for more than 4,000 orphaned Ohio animals in a 14-year timespan — all while incarcerated.
For 43 years, Young lived at the Ohio Reformatory for Women before her release in October 2025.
Now at 69, Young works as a recovery support technician at Fresh Start Recovery Center in Columbus, where she helps women in recovery and their children.
“I didn’t think I could make it out, let me just be honest with you,” Young said. “I didn’t think I’d ever be standing here doing this right now.”
Young served as the keynote speaker Thursday at the Ohio Wildlife Center’s annual Wildnite for Wildlife fundraiser, which raised more than $300,000.
Her story is part of a decades-long partnership between the Ohio Wildlife Center and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction — one that gives second chances to both animals and the people who care for them.
Representatives from the department spoke earlier in the evening and accepted the Dr. Donald Burton Legacy Award, which recognizes an organization’s extraordinary partnership with the wildlife center.
“[The Ohio Wildlife Center] is three times busier than most other clinics in the entire state. And the only way that that is possible is through partnership,” emcee Hardy Kern said.
That partnership, now more than 30 years old, allows incarcerated individuals to care for injured and orphaned wildlife.
“Through the dedication of incarcerated individuals and the ODRC staff, thousands of injured and orphaned animals have received the care they need to survive and ultimately return to their natural habitat,” said Sue Anderson, an Ohio Wildlife Center volunteer who helped start the prison program.
Now, nearly 10% of all the center’s rehabilitation work done is completed through that program.
‘Those animals taught me how to love’
Young said the wildlife program helped her rediscover her humanity — teaching her how to be more than the mistakes that led to her incarceration.
“When I started with wildlife, I had no idea why they would let me anywhere near an animal,” Young said.
She recalled her favorite memory caring for a squirrel named Chucky. One day, Chucky got loose, and when Young finally caught him, he bit down hard on her finger.
She was taught to shake him loose — but in that moment, Young couldn’t do it.
“What occurred to me was, he, too, had been hurt and abandoned,” Young said. “He was just doing what he needed to do to survive. And at that moment, I fell in love with the Ohio Wildlife Center.”
“Those animals taught me how love. I’m not the same person standing here that I was 43 years ago. And it all started with taking care of cottontail rabbits.”
Sharon Young
Her love for the animals taught her to love people too, inspiring her to study ministry while incarcerated.
Since her release, Young has continued to volunteer with the Ohio Wildlife Center.
She said she hopes more people understand the circumstances many incarcerated women come from.
“A lot of the women in prison have been battered, abused and abandoned,” Young said.
Before she was incarcerated at 26, Young said she didn’t know how to communicate, process emotions or live a stable life.
“All I knew how to do was drink,” she said.
And while no person could teach her those skills, she said a small, fluffy mammal could.
Background about the program
The partnership program is in place at five Ohio prisons, including the Richland Correctional Institution, Marion Correctional Institution, Madison Correctional Institution, London Correctional Institution and Ohio Reformatory for Women.
With over 8,500 animals admitted to the Ohio Wildlife Center hospital each year, staff say there are not enough volunteers in the area who can dedicate the around-the-clock care that infant animals need.
That’s where incarcerated participants step in, helping care for high volumes of infant squirrels, opossums and rabbits. At Marion Correctional Institution, the focus is on songbirds.
The Ohio Wildlife Center expanded the program in 2019 by reaching out to prisons across the state. Amanda Roush, who now oversees the program at Richland Correctional Institution, said she immediately was on board.
In 2025 alone, incarcerated persons cared for 900 animals in the five participating facilities across the state.
Programs like this are part of a broader effort within the prison system to reduce recidivism by offering academic, career and community-based opportunities.
Three incarcerated individuals at Richland Correctional Institution previously told Delaware Source the program has had a positive impact on their mental health.
Read more in-depth coverage here:
Prison Opossums: How a Powell wildlife center partners with a Mansfield prison for rehabilitation
Discover how a unique Ohio prison program helps rehabilitate wildlife — and inmates.
