TSA Has Puppies for Prisoners

A lucky group of Texas inmates will get to care for puppies destined to serve as bomb-sniffing dogs for the Transportation Security Agency (TSA).

The inmates, currently serving time in the Travis County State Jail in Austin, Texas, will see to the "feeding, cleaning and socializing" of the four puppies for about a year, preparing them for explosives detection training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Why prisoners? Why would TSA choose to have bomb-detecting dogs raised by prison inmates instead of volunteer families in nearby towns, as usual?

Apparently, the TSA finds airports to be a lot like prisons. As the director of the TSA's Canine Breeding and Development Center said in a press release, "The prison is an ideal environment to socialize puppies with a variety of sights, sounds and smells, similar to what they will encounter in a transportation environment." Persons stranded at airports due to flight delays, cancellations and over-bookings are likely to agree.

So many prisoners, so few puppies: Should TSA’s prisoner-raised puppies program catch on, it could face a shortage of pups, as the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported earlier this week that one out of every 31 U.S. adults was either in jail, or on probation or parole at the end of 2006.

Also See:
One In 31 US Adults In Jail or On Probation
Homeland Security Wants All Ten Fingers
Bush Moves to Ease Airline Flight Delays