ID: Bull Connor's ghost sighted south of Boise
From the AP:
Mean dogs stand guard at Idaho prison
Nobody has broken out of the Idaho State Correctional Institution in more than 20 years. Prison officials like to think a hard-bitten corps of sentries with names like Cookie, Bongo and Chi Chi has had something to do with that. The institution is the only state prison in the U.S. to use snarling, snapping sentry dogs to patrol its perimeter...
24 mean dogs — mostly German shepherds, rottweilers and Belgian malinois, with a few boxers and pit bulls — roam the space between the inner and outer chain-link fences 24 hours a day, ferociously defending their territory...
Dogs were once widely used as sentries in the U.S... The practice fell out of favor during the civil rights era as police dogs became associated with racist and repressive law enforcement...
Just one more way my home state lives up to its motto: "Idaho is what America was."
2 Comments:
Im a PD and Im not particularly bothered by this. The dogs haven't been biting inmates. And if we're going to have prisons I'd prefer they be escape proof. The "Bull Connor" analogy is a little bit silly.
Let's tally this: 49 states don't have prisons patrolled by snarling snapping sentry dogs. One state - Idaho - does. Therefore, the correct response for an Idahoan is to say that the 49 states are wrong and Idaho is right. You hear this a lot in my old home, especially when the legislature is in session. Tends to reinforce my sense that practices and prejudices in Idaho which seem natural, even inevitable while you live in the Gem State appear a little bit silly, even misguided once you move on and look back from the rest of America.
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