In the early hours of a Sunday morning in October 2020, Iliana Velazquez, a corrections officer, experienced a devastating injury when a patrol dog attacked her hand. This occurred while she was transferring the dog between kennels at an Arizona State Prison Complex near Tucson.
Similarly, in May 2020, an attack-trained patrol dog named Maverick bit a corrections officer on the buttock during his response to a fight at an Iowa state penitentiary. Another incident took place in September, where Ryan Edwards, a trainee in the Virginia Department of Corrections, was attacked by a patrol dog named Oscar during obedience training. Edwards suffered bites on both forearms and his right hand, requiring immediate medical attention at a nearby clinic.
Numerous state prison systems, including Iowa, Arizona, and Virginia, have deployed dogs to attack individuals in custody or as a display of force. These departments believe that the presence of these dogs alone, their aggressive behavior and barking, acts as a deterrent to violent incidents. By utilizing these dogs as a use of force, prison administrators believe they can replace corrections officers in dangerous situations, such as breaking up fights or extracting individuals from their cells.
According to records obtained by Insider, patrol dogs in state prisons have been commanded to attack incarcerated individuals at least 295 times from 2017 to 2022. Additionally, these dogs have bitten corrections officers or other staff members at least 13 times, resulting in severe injuries that often required emergency medical treatment or surgery.
In 2018, the Iowa Department of Corrections faced a fine of $5,000 from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) due to dangerous working conditions involving their use of patrol dogs. An OSHA report highlighted the lack of sufficient training time for the dogs, increasing the likelihood of officer injuries caused by these security animals.
When asked about the threat patrol dogs pose to workplace safety, the labor unions representing corrections employees in Iowa and Virginia declined to comment. However, Carlos Garcia, executive director of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association and a former canine officer, reviewed Insider’s findings. Garcia noted that most of the recent dog bites on staff members in Arizona occurred in the dog kennels where individuals without specialized canine training worked.
Garcia compared working with an attack-trained dog to handling a loaded weapon and acknowledged that even after weeks of training, some dogs may still exhibit indiscriminate aggression. If a dog consistently bites handlers or staff members, it would likely need to be euthanized.
Virginia Department of Corrections argued in a court filing that patrol dogs play a crucial role in ensuring the safety of prison staff. However, former Virginia prison warden Jeffrey Kiser admitted in a deposition that the department lacked data to support its claims. While some prison administrators and rank-and-file officers hesitate to give up the use of attack-trained dogs as a form of force, corrections consultant Kathleen Dennehy emphasizes the risks these dogs pose to staff and prisoner safety.
Virginia, in particular, relies heavily on patrol dogs, which has resulted in a significant toll on corrections officers. Matthew Johnson, a former canine officer, experienced severe arm injuries from a dog bite that required stitches. Another patrol dog named Oscar bit two canine officers and was eventually euthanized due to being labeled as a liability.
Despite the risks involved, being a prison canine officer is still considered a highly desirable job. In Virginia prisons, handlers and their dogs are expected to be the first responders to incidents requiring force, putting them at the forefront of violent episodes. Former employees expressed concern that the department’s reliance on dogs could potentially endanger staff members and others present during these high-pressure situations.
Ultimately, relying on patrol dogs carries the risk of injury not only from dog bites but also from the requirement for handlers to face potentially dangerous situations alone if the dogs fail to stop the violence effectively.
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