AdvertisementLegislation to severely restrict the use of attack-trained patrol dogs in Virginia state prisons has passed the state legislature, receiving overwhelming bipartisan support in the House and passing unanimously in the Senate.
Patrol dogs have been used to attack or intimidate prisoners in eight states in recent years.
The new law could dramatically impact the use of patrol dogs at six high-security prisons where, according to incident reports obtained by BI, patrol dogs have been regularly used to attack men who refuse to leave their cells or who are involved in one-on-one altercations.
When pressed by lawmakers on BI's findings that Virginia deployed patrol dogs 18 times more often than any other state, Elam said that the number of bites in Virginia was "alarming."
The new legislation regulating patrol dogs in Virginia prisons passed the House on February 8 82-15 with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Persons:
—, Holly Seibold, Michael Webert, Marcus Elam, Elam, we've, Kyle Gibson, Webert, Seibold, Glenn Youngkin, Christian Martinez
Organizations:
Business, Service, House, Democrat, Republican, BI, Virginia Department of Corrections, Department of Corrections
Locations:
Virginia, Arizona