I don't live in AZ,

[trag]

But I recieved this e-mail anyway.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (R in Arizona) is doing it RIGHT!!:
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the
inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails.

Took away their weights.

Cut off all but "G" movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on
county and city projects. 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 let in the Disney channel and the weather channel. When
asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know how hot it's
gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.

He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.
When the inmates complained, he told them.....this is a good
one......"This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come
back."

He bought Newt Gingrich' lecture series on videotape 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 might
explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

More on the AZ Sheriff.

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees
just set a new record), the Associated Press reports:

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 Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on
their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside
the week before.

Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their
chests and dripped down to their pink socks.

"It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has
lived in the tents for 1 1/2 years. "It's inhumane."

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago
started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is
not one bit sympathetic He said Wednesday that he told all of the
inmates:

"It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and
they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes .
. .. so shut your damned mouths."

(snip)

If Jail is like this, I wonder how there prisons are. This guy sounds like a power freak.

[Mikimouse]

1. Well, that should explain how the word...

Pig came into such widespread use. I only hope, and fervently so, that this pig ends up getting a full taste of his own medicine. Then, I want to hear him squeal about it being unfair and inhumane. Pfffft!

[BlueJazz]

2. Anybody here want to bet me that there's not one inmate....

...in that place who is doing time for a "White-Collar" crime.

Republicans always rant about the rest of us being soft on crime
until one of their own is caught screwing the shit out of the poor,
than it's the old "they made an error in judgement" crap.....

[JNelson6563]

3. Ken Lay, Jefferey Skilling and all those criminals

should be in this hell-hole.

Julie

[ronatchig]

6. Actually I disagree,

No one should be subjected to this kind of treatment. who was it who said you will be known by how you treat the least among you.? I will say that this sheriff should be brought up on charges of crimes against humanity. In so much it has been proven that exposure to high temps is a very serious health problem and long term exposure is damaging to internal organs such as liver , kidneys , brain , etc. That such a brute would have any authority at all speaks to the moral numbness of not only himself but to the entire population of the county in which he rules.
Also the guy here in NC who is a soul mate to this sadistic sob, has been brought up on charges of malfeasance, fraud and a couple of other felonies. Maybe an investigation of this guy would bring up something to stop his reign of terror. ( One can hope anyway.)

[JNelson6563]

9. I dunno

Seems to me that guys who screwed countless others over with their own greed might need to see what sort of "justice" awaits "criminals" from the lower classes.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Julie

[bogey18]

4. Yes, he is a power freak

He is also paranoid and thinks nothing of using his sheriffs to harass his perceived enemies. There have been stories documented in the newspaper (which is an untraconservative rag) of people who have said critical things about him being followed around town by his sheriffs, or having their children stopped and harassed every time they drive a car.

He has proven time and time again in public statements that not only is he a cruel man but he is not a very bright man either.

He is also the most popular politician in AZ. I cannot even remember who our last Sheriff was - it was before my daughter was born and she just graduated from high school.

He is just another product of the tyranny of the majority who truly believe tat if you are in jail, you must be a criminal, and if you are a criminal, you deserve absolutely nothing except the bare minimum to survive.

Don't get yourself thrown in jail in Arizona.

[bluestateguy]

5. My parents live in Glendale,AZ

Arpaio is a fascist. What the writer of that piece does not mention is that crime has not been measurably affected in the Phoenix area. Arpaio uses his police like his own private SS army to spy on political enemies; he threatens opponents and harasses reporters who ask questions; the normally conservative Arizona Republic (a Pulliam paper) hates him; also, a majority of the people in the Tent City have not yet been convicted of crimes, but they are treated as if they are convicted criminals.

[Mnemosyne]

7. just one of many

tortures used here in US prison systems.

Amnesty International has many records of abuse here. check it out at:

http://www.amnesty.org

[LTR]

8. Freak Republic loves this guy

He's been at a few of their rallies in the Phoenix area.

He sounds like a world-class scumbag.

Hope he's not afraid of karma.

[IronLionZion]

10. I've heard of tent city before

Some of the things that happen there are just inhumane (like the heat).

But no TV, porno, etc. is good. Prison is for punishing/rehabilitating people and preventing crime. If people like Ken Lay were in tent city there would be less corporate crime. And I thought all prisons have labor because you can see these guys picking up trash and mowing lawns along the PA turnpike.