Idaho State Correctional Institution is the only prison in the states to use snarling sentry dogs to patrol its perimeter. The dogs motsly consist of German Shepherds, Rottweiler, Belgian Malinois, with a few Boxers and Pitbulls. Apparently, since the program started in 1986, no inmates have managed to escape the prison ground. And after an incidence in early 1990's when a dog alerted the guard of 2 inmates trying to escape, no other prisoners have even attempted to run away from the institution. The officers believe that the dogs are more effective in guarding the prison ground that having correctional officers around, or even electric fence.
"The average offender has no problem engaging in a fight with a correctional officer - they're used to fighting with humans. But they don't want to mess with a 100-pound rottweiler who has an attitude and who wants to bite the snot out of them for climbing that fence."
"Most facilities have gone to electronic motion detectors or electrical fencing," said Jay Christensen, deputy warden of security at the Idaho prison. "But technology can be circumvented. We had a guy at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution get through a motion detector system a few years back" by moving so slowly that the sensors didn't pick him up. "
What I find really impressive about this program is that these dogs are actually those that were about to be put to sleep by local pounds because they were deemed too dangerous to be pets. By training these dogs as guards, they are given a second chance at life.
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20090329_Prison_employs_dangerous_dogs.html
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This makes a lot of sense and I'm almost surprised no one has thought of implementing this until now. I definitely think it's true that both human guards and technology can have their flaws, so this seems like it would be pretty effective and more reliable in some ways.
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