(Even if it ain't true!)
TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO, HE IS THE MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF (ARIZONA) AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
These are some of the reasons why:
Sheriff Joe Arpaio created the 'tent city jail' to save Arizona from spending tens of millions of dollars on another expensive prison complex.
He has jail meals down to 20 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.
He banned smoking and pornographic magazines in the jails, and took away their weightlifting equipment and cut off all but 'G' movies. He says:
'They're in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave.'
He started chain gangs to use the inmates to do free work on county and city projects and save taxpayer's money.
Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.
He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only allows the Disney channel and the weather channel.
When asked why the weather channel, he replied: 'So these morons will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.'
He cut off coffee because it has zero nutritional value and is therefore a waste of taxpayer money. When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back.'
He also bought the Newt Gingrich lecture series on US history that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series that actually tells the truth for a change would be welcome and that it might even explain why 95% of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.
With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record for June 2nd 2007), the Associated Press reported: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed wire surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.
On the Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing pink boxer shorts were overheard chatting in the tents, where temperatures reached 128 degrees.
'This is hell. It feels like we live in a furnace,' said Ernesto Gonzales, an inmate for 2 years with 10 more to go. 'It's inhumane.'
Joe Arpaio, who makes his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. 'Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for parole, only to go out and commit more crimes so they can come back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.'
The same day he told all the inmates who were complaining of the heat in the tents: 'It's between 120 to 130 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to walk all day in the sun, wearing full battle gear and get shot at, and they have not committed any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!'
Way to go, Sheriff! If all prisons were like yours there would be a lot less crime and we would not be in the current position of running out of prison spaces.
Sheriff Joe was just re-elected as Sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona.
*Thanks, Marion
4 comments:
yeah, he's doing a lot to address the reasons why people end up going to jail in the first place...like poverty, unemployment, unequal education opportunities, rampant sexism and racism, just to name a few.
other than aversion, which has been proven to be an abysmal failure throughout the history of corrections, he is doing nothing to help the people who are actually under his care (let's not forget, they are a very controlled population and it's extremely easy to violate their civil rights - let's also not forget that they actually have those rights) to not end up in someone else's prison. the only change he's creating is creating more mean, bitter and angry people.
as to the soldiers...they volunteered with full knowledge of what they were stepping into. prisoners don't.
i think that sheriff joe is one step away from stalin. the only thing that keeps him from getting all the way there is the aclu keeping their very beady eyes on him.
It has been proven many times that treating people in jails badly has no positive effect on the crime rate, all it does is put even more bitter people back on the street when they get out. The simple fact that the USA has the highest number of incarcerated people in the world and still has the highest crime rate on the free world is proof enoughErwin
Made an error in my previous comment! :-)
I think I agree - I like the controversy, though -- makes it a positive place to make comments.
The Wizard does publish all comments, unless they are pornographic or use too much foul language. Comments may be edited for spelling.
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