''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 jai ...
for prisoners who would mimic an escape to be hunted down by prison
bloodhounds 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''.
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
''Dogboys'' is a 1998 American-Canadian made-for-television action-thriller film directed by Ken Russell and starring Dean Cain, Tia Carrere and Bryan Brown. It was originally broadcast on Showtime on April 4, 1998.
Plot
Julian is a convict ass ...
'', a 1998 American-Canadian
made-for-television action-thriller film 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,
Tia Carrere and
Bryan Brown 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 ...
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