''Dog boy'' was a term used to refer to adult male prison inmates in the

Texas Department of Corrections The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...

for prisoners who would mimic an escape to be hunted down by prison

bloodhounds The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar and, since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is called, ''l ...

and mounted guards as a training exercise. The bloodhounds in Texas have been considered to be the best for at least the last century by various government agencies and

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

organizations. More recently, the term inmate kennel men has been used as a substitute for the term. During the 1800s, inmates who handled the dogs were known as dawg boys. In some cases, the exercise was cited to be carried out for the "entertainment for the guards and their guests," which has drawn controversy over the practice. This was covered in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

History

In the 1890s, Charles Favor stated that "the state keeps bloodhounds, at all times, at a convenient point; and in the event a convict escapes, they put it on the culprit's trail. It is very difficult to elude the dogs and should they be catch a convict their viciousness is extreme." In 1928, Beecher Deason, an escaped prisoner attempted to evade the dogs through various tactics, but stated that "pretty soon I heard the dog's on my trail." Deason recalled how "the guards had a habit of letting the dogs chew an escaped prisoner when they caught him." Deason escaped on that day, but was recaptured later.

Media

A movie entitled '' Dogboys'', a 1998 American-Canadian

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

action-thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by

Ken Russell Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films in the main were liberal adaptation ...

and starring

Dean Cain Dean George Cain ( Tanaka; born July 31, 1966) is an American actor. From 1993 to 1997, he played Clark Kent / Superman in the TV series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''. Cain was the host of ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' and ...

Tia Carrere Althea Rae Duhinio Janairo (born January 2, 1967), known professionally as Tia Carrere (), is an American actress, singer and former model who got her first big break as a regular on the daytime soap opera '' General Hospital''. Carrere played C ...

and

Bryan Brown Bryan Neathway Brown AM (born 23 June 1947) is an Australian actor. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include ''Breaker Morant'' (1980), ' ...

was originally broadcast on

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

on April 4, 1998. In the film, Julian (played by Cain) is a convict assigned by the sadistic Captain Brown to be a dog boy—a human guinea pig used to train attack dogs to hunt down potential escapees. Russell states that he was given orders to revisions by "anonymous" execs on the film: "It was change this, alter that – no discussion, 'just do it.' There was no one to talk to... It paid the rent."{{cite news, author=Gray, Timothy M., title=Russell takes Poe-tic license, volume=383, page=60, work=Variety, issue=1(May 21-May 27, 2001)

References

Imprisonment and detention in the United States