NCJ Number
125194
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 52 Issue: 4 Dated: (July 1990) Pages: 50,52,54,56,58
Date Published
1990
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Alaska's first Prison Service Dog Program was developed to meet the growing need of additional security at Spring Creek Correctional Center, a facility for Alaska's worst offenders.
Abstract
Four officers and their dogs became certified canine units, trained in evidence detection, felony searching, tracking, narcotic detection, officer safety, obedience, and agility. Though the Department of Corrections owns the four registered, purebred German shepherds, the dogs live in the officers' homes. Like athletes, the officers and dogs must stay in peak condition to maintain the highest level of efficiency. Weekly training time is set aside for each officer during his shift, to sustain his dog's skill level. The dogs' constant movement between the inner and outer perimeters of the Center keeps them mobile so they can detect any problems in the facility's daily operation. The dogs have conducted housing unit shakedowns and have turned up tattoo machines, homemade knives and pipes, explosive materials, drugs, hypodermic kits and other contraband. The major advantage of a prison canine program is the psychological deterrence the dogs have on the inmates, by their physical presence at the facility. Perhaps the most important measure of the canine units' success is the fact that there have been no escape attempts in the two years since this facility opened.