- In a sweeping bipartisan vote, Virginia lawmakers handed a invoice to curb the usage of dogs to attack state prisoners
- The invoice got here after Business Insider revealed dogs attacked 271 Virginia prisoners in a recent years, greater than some other state
- Common makes use of of the dogs, corresponding to in cell extractions, would now be banned.
Legislation to severely limit the usage of attack-trained patrol dogs in Virginia state prisons has handed the state legislature, receiving overwhelming bipartisan help within the House and passing unanimously within the Senate.
House Delegates Holly Seibold, a Democrat, and Michael Webert, a Republican, took motion after a Business Insider investigation revealed Virginia prisons deploy attack-trained dogs at an unmatched scale. Patrol dogs have been used to attack or intimidate prisoners in eight states in recent years. Dogs attacked 271 incarcerated folks in Virginia between 2017 and 2022. Arizona, the state with the second highest variety of incidents in that point interval, had 15 canine assaults.
The invoice would severely limit the deployment of patrol dogs to attack incarcerated folks in Virginia, prohibiting their use besides when “instantly vital” to guard prisoners or workers from the “menace of great bodily damage or dying.” Deploying the dogs to intervene in a combat would now require the involvement of at the very least three prisoners and permission from a warden or different supervisor.
The new regulation might dramatically impression the usage of patrol dogs at six high-security prisons the place, in line with incident experiences obtained by BI, patrol dogs have been repeatedly used to attack males who refuse to go away their cells or who’re concerned in one-on-one altercations.
BI was in a position to receive particulars of 149 canine assaults in Virginia prisons in recent years, by incident experiences turned over in a authorized settlement with the Virginia Department of Corrections. A evaluation of these incident experiences exhibits {that a} overwhelming majority of the deployments would have been barred below the requirements specified by the brand new invoice. At least 118 of the assaults occurred when officers intervened in one-on-one fights between prisoners or when a prisoner refused direct orders from workers to go away his cell or in any other case comply. The new laws would make deploying a patrol canine in these circumstances unlawful, besides when instantly vital to guard prisoners or workers from critical damage or dying.
Bites from patrol dogs are extreme, typically completely disabling or disfiguring. At least 18 males incarcerated in Virginia required emergency hospital take care of crush accidents, muscle and tissue harm, or septic infections ensuing from canine assaults since 2017. Dozens of others suffered from psychological trauma for months or years after they have been attacked.
“Obviously all bites are unhealthy,” Marcus Elam, corrections operations administrator and legislative liaison for the Virginia Department of Corrections, stated at a January legislative listening to. But Elam advised the committee that the division primarily makes use of patrol dogs for jail safety and deterrence — in different phrases, that the specter of their tooth and snarls is enough to supply compliance. Out of 774 incidents the place the dogs have been deployed in 2023, Elam stated, 34 incidents resulted in bites.
When pressed by lawmakers on BI’s findings that Virginia deployed patrol dogs 18 instances extra typically than some other state, Elam stated that the variety of bites in Virginia was “alarming.”
“I’ll acknowledge that we will all the time get higher and any chunk that’s inappropriate that has taken place when it should not is a foul factor,” Elam stated. “Our aim on the division is taking a look at what our practices are in any space and discover out the place we have made errors and discover out what we will do higher.”
Kyle Gibson, a Virginia Department of Corrections spokesperson, advised BI that the division “doesn’t routinely touch upon proposed or pending laws.”
The new laws regulating patrol dogs in Virginia prisons handed the House on February 8 82-15 with overwhelming bipartisan help. The invoice then handed unanimously within the Senate on February 20.
“When we see issues, we remedy them, and never with overreactions or easy, fast fixes,” Delegate Webert advised BI in a press release. “In this case, we have been in a position to do exactly that, and ultimately, now we have a brand new regulation that can make our corrections system safer.”
“I used to be thrilled to see HB 159 go the Senate on a unanimous, bipartisan vote,” Delegate Seibold advised BI. “We want an pressing intervention to deal with this Virginia-specific drawback, and I used to be happy to see my General Assembly colleagues comply with sort out this essential situation this yr. I’m hopeful that the Governor will signal the invoice and I sit up for working with the administration and the Department of Corrections to guard the well being and security of everybody in our correctional amenities.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has seven days to signal the invoice, veto it, or ship it again to the legislature. If he does nothing, the invoice turns into regulation.
“The governor will evaluation any laws that involves his desk,” Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the governor, advised BI.
