DOGS ADD CONTROL FACTOR AT JAIL

GREENSBORO -- Guilford County inmates have to deal with a new cadre of jail
guards: two big German shepherds.

And these are not the cute, cuddly K9s lawmen take to show-and-tell. These
dogs are ready to bite.

"The other dogs you can take to schools," said detention officer Tracy
Smith, who handles Kimo, who has been patroling the jail for several
months. "I wouldn't take him to school. We keep him on edge at all times."

The sheriff's department is using the dogs -- Kimo went into service last
year, the other dog will begin action next month -- to sniff out drugs and
protect jail employees.

"(Kimo) has stopped some potential problems because of the overcrowding we
have," Sheriff BJ Barnes said, adding that the dog "gets an awful lot of
respect" from inmates.

Deputies have used Kimo to ferret out inmates who refuse to leave their
cells or who are threatening to assault jail guards. "They know he will
bite," Smith said. "... He will hit any body part."

Barnes said he thought Kimo had already bitten a few inmates, but jail
employees said that has not happened.

The dogs are more aggressive than many K9s. Kimo, who has uncovered several
hidden stashes of drugs during his short tenure, is always wound up when he
is on duty, and inmates are not allowed to pet him.

Detention officers admit they use the dogs to intimidate inmates. They want
them to think about the dogs before doing something wrong. And officers
will let the dogs attack in certain situations.

"We had a fight one day where there were 18 inmates," Smith said. "Two of
the inmates were fighting. I couldn't get anyone to move apart. I put the
dog in. Within two or three seconds, they were dispersed."

The next dog will be put at the jail in High Point; a third that the
department hopes to add by the end of the year might be put at the prison
farm in Gibsonville.

It is rare for dogs to be on duty in North Carolina county jails. Officials
in Rockingham, Alamance and Randolph counties all said Tuesday that there
are no dogs in their jails.

Capt. C.J. Williamson, who helps oversee the county jail in Greensboro,
said he only knew of one other county jail in the state, in Iredell County,
that has dogs. An Iredell County Sheriff's Department official confirmed
Wednesday that the county uses dogs in its jails, and added that he did not
know any other county jails with dogs.

"This is fairly new in North Carolina," Williamson said. "There are very few."

The N.C. Department of Correction has a large contingent of prison dogs,
but those do not pose a physical threat to prisoners, according to Keith
Acree, a spokesman for the department. Unlike the sheriff department's
dogs, state prison dogs are not used to get uncooperative inmates to leave
their cells.

"We don't have any dogs who can go in and get people," he said. "We have to
send people in.

"Our dogs are trained for passive resistance. If they sniff something, they
sit down and look at it."

Still, the Guilford County Sheriff's Department is not doing anything
unusual with its dogs, said Jim Watson, secretary of the North American
Police Work Dog Association.

"It is not uncommon for detention facilities to have dogs," he said. "They
can use them for finding narcotics or tracking or protection."

Barnes did, however, get money to pay for the dogs from an unconventional
source: the jail's inmate-welfare fund. The fund, which draws its revenues
from sales at the jail canteen and from inmate phone calls, is generally
used to buy quality-of-life items for inmates or to help them further their
education.

Barnes said the the purchase of the dogs -- each cost about $10,000 -- is a
valid use of the fund because the dogs help protect inmates from each
other. The department trained employees to handle the dogs, so "the cost to
the taxpayer has not moved at all," Barnes said.

"I could bring in *NSYNC for the prisoners for a concert" using the
inmate-welfare fund, Barnes added. "I'm not going to do that."