On October 12, two days after the publication of a Human Rights Watch report on the use of dogs to forcibly remove prisoners from their cells, Gary Maynard, Iowa Corrections Director and President of the American Correctional Association, announced that Iowa’s state prisons would discontinue this practice. In addition to the immediate response in Iowa, conversations between Human Rights Watch and corrections departments in Arizona and Massachusetts prompted them also to amend their policies.
Connecticut is now the only state that continues to engage in this cruel and wholly unnecessary practice. Having galvanized change in other states, Human Rights Watch will target the Connecticut prison system to press it to change its practices.
