HB 726 Virginia House of Delegates · 2024 Regular Session

Correctional and juvenile correctional facilities; use of canines, prohibited acts.

Summary
Use of canines in correctional and juvenilecorrectional facilities; prohibited acts. Provides that it is unlawful for any correctional officer or other employee of a statecorrectional facility or juvenile correctional facility who is permittedto handle canines to use a canine to (i) extract a prisoner from his cell or (ii) intervene in an altercation, fight, or other incidentbetween three or fewer prisoners. The bill provides that the Departmentof Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice shall makepublic any policies and regulations relating to (a) the use of canines,(b) training requirements for both canines and the handlers of suchcanines, and (c) the supervision of the officers or employees whoare permitted to handle such canines. The bill requires the Departmentof Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice to track allcanine uses of force and all incidents in which canines were presentor requested for assistance but no canine use of force occurred andto make such information available on the Departments' websites.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2024
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 9, 2024 Last action Feb 13, 2024
Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
5
Key actions
1
Committee
3
Jan 18, 2024
Lower · Passed
Subcommittee recommends laying on the table (6-Y 0-N)
lower
Jan 16, 2024
Committee
Assigned PS sub: Public Safety
lower
Jan 9, 2024
Committee
Referred to Committee on Public Safety
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Mike Webert
Mike Webert
RRepublican
VA
61