JAILHOUSE DOG TO SNIFF OUT DRUGS

The Department of Correction has a new employee with a nose for trouble. He
may not be too popular with some of his fellow employees.

His name: Arras. He's 2 years old, 2 feet tall and is not participating in
the state employees retirement plan.

Arras is a drug-sniffing dog, a specially trained Belgian Malinois. And in
the coming month, Arras is going to start sniffing correctional employees as
they arrive for work.

"These searches will be unannounced and any employee, whether assigned to
that facility or not, who enters the area of the canine interdiction
activity will be required to cooperate fully," Correction Secretary Mac
Jarvis said in a recent memo.

Jarvis said he's worried about drugs in prison. Some is brought in by
visitors -- and some by staff.

Prison officials estimate that about a dozen prison employees get caught
with drugs each year. Prison officials say Arras is not one to bark up the
wrong tree.

Spokeswoman Patty McQuillan told Dome about an exercise last year in which
Arras sniffed the human scent from a pack of cigarettes on the ground and
was told to find the owner. He trotted off and found the person a mile away.
McQuillan said that Arras is about to be used on prison employees for the
first time.

When and where?

"It's top secret," she said.