The War on Crime

[slapshot™]

Note: this was e-mailed to me the other day...very compelling

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO, HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) who created the "tent city jail":

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 and 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 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.

More on the Arizona 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 + 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!"

http://www.posse.net/graphics/book.gif

[a4l]

Holy crap! This guy is for real. I thought it was a joke until I googled the name. He is one tough cookie though I am not at all in agreement with his methods.

I once saw a chain gang in Georgia filling hole in the highway with dixie cups of tar. The sight made me sick to my stomach and I had a few choice words for the guards though I didn't say them loud enough for them to hear.

[TimmyTabasco]

This guy sounds worse than Dr.Moreau :nod:

[KB in Kelowna]

If getting tough on crime and "lock them up and throw away the key", and "three strikes and you are out" and assembly line death chambers (ala Texas) were to be effective, then the USA would be the safest society on earth.

[a4l]

If getting tough on crime and "lock them up and throw away the key", and "three strikes and you are out" and assembly line death chambers (ala Texas) were to be effective, then the USA would be the safest society on earth.

Well said. 1/4 of the worlds prisoners are held in Ameican jails. I think they need penal reform badly.

[Newfie John]

I for one agree completely with these methonds.

[Mel]

Aside from the heat... it really doesn't sound all that bad. For one thing, I like bologna sandwiches. Pink underwear? well it's not my style but hardly inhumane...

There's nothing wrong with manual labor either. Better to take away the weights and let them get their exercise doing something to benefit society.

I do disagree with the cable TV channels. There's no reason he shouldn't allow educational channels such as history and discovery etc.

[Madferret]

I do disagree with the cable TV channels. There's no reason he shouldn't allow educational channels such as history and discovery etc.

Ok Mel, you're in the clink, you get to choose 1 channel....Thrashers TV or The MSG Network?

:boogie:

[Mel]

Ok Mel, you're in the clink, you get to choose 1 channel....Thrashers TV or The MSG Network?

:boogie:

MSG :pimp:

The thrashers are just an "adopted" team to get me through this re-building phase. I'm still a Ranger fan... as hard as it is with Sather in charge.

Maybe he should hire Sheriff Joe Arpaio to coach the Rags :laughing:

[PDO]

American needs a penal reform badly. Too many people in jail for too many stupid reasons.

I think System of a Down said it best actually...

They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
Following the rights movement
You clamped on with your iron fists
Drugs became conveniently
Available for all the kids
Following the rights movement
You clamped on with your iron fists
Drugs became conveniently
Available for all the kids
I buy my crack, I smack my b***
Right here in hollywood
(nearly 2 million americans are
Incarcerated in the prison system
Prison system of the us)
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
(for you and me to live in)
Another prison system
Another prison system
Another prison system
(for you and me to live in)
Minor drug offenders fill your prisons
You don?t even flinch
All our taxes paying for your wars
Against the new non-rich
Minor drug offenders fill your prisons
You don?t even flinch
All our taxes paying for your wars
Against the new non-rich
I buy my crack, I smack my b****
Right here in hollywood
The percentage of americans in the prison system
Prison system, has doubled since 1985
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
(for you and me to live in)
Another prison system
Another prison system
Another prison system
For you and i, for you and i, for you and i.
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
For you and me
Oh baby, you and me.
All research and successful drug policy show
That treatment should be increased
And law enforcement decreased
While abolishing mandatory minimun sentences
All research and successful drug policy show
That treatment should be increased
And law enforcement decreased
While abolishing mandatory minimun sentences
Utilising drugs to pay for secret wars around the world
Drugs are now your global policy now you police the globe
I buy my crack, I smack my b****
Right here in hollywood
Drug money is used to rig elections
And train brutal corporate sponsored dictators
Around the world
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
(for you and me to live in)
Another prison system
Another prison system
Another prison system
(for you and me to live in)
For you and i, for you and i, for you and i
For you and i
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
They?re trying to build a prison
For you and me
Oh baby, you and me

[a4l]

Aside from the heat... it really doesn't sound all that bad. For one thing, I like bologna sandwiches.

He spends less than 40 cents per person per meal. That is hardly good nutrition. *I bet fresh fruit and vegetables are lacking in their diets, along with any meaningful source of iron and other required nutrients.

[Newfie John]

He spends less than 40 cents per person per meal. That is hardly good nutrition. *I bet fresh fruit and vegetables are lacking in their diets, along with any meaningful source of iron and other required nutrients.

That manual labour they're doing is probably planting those very vegetables that they eat. If they weren't getting whats on that food guide thingy he wouldn't be allowed to do it. Rest assured they're getting the necessary nutrients in order to live, and just enough to live I hope.

[Madferret]

I think the biggest problem in the 'States is that with that Zero Drug Tolerane Policy, (Nancy Reagan's brainchild?), a Pot Dealer & a Heroin Dealer are both handled and prosecuted the same. Am I right on that, or has that been changed?

[MadDevil]

I have no problem at all with the methods this sheriff is using. Rather than letting the inmates vegetate, he actually puts them to work. Chaingangs may seem a bit old fashioned, but they do have to control the prisoners somehow. Besides, if they're doing free work for the community, isn't that a good thing?

I almost started laughing out loud when I read the quote about the prisoner saying it was "inhumane" to make them live in tents out in the heat. With the amount of homeless and poor people in this country, these guys should be lucky they're getting a decent meal, decent living quarters, and get to watch some television. Some out there don't even have as much as these prisoners do...

[slapshot™]

I have no problem at all with the methods this sheriff is using. Rather than letting the inmates vegetate, he actually puts them to work. Chaingangs may seem a bit old fashioned, but they do have to control the prisoners somehow. Besides, if they're doing free work for the community, isn't that a good thing?

I too don't have a problem with what the Sheriff is doing...."This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back." hahahaha!


Prisoner work gangs (IMO) have their place, so long as the work they do doesn't take money away from others that could be doing that work and leaves them unemployed.

It's hard to compete against free labour.

[charlio lemieux]

This tough guy BS only goes so far what happens when the prisoners riot? Does he bring out the Flamethrowers and Grenade launchers?

Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

That's what I like to see an Equal Oportunity Opressor. :laughing:

Nothing wrong with having inmates work. They should fix our roads. The taxes that keep them fed and sheltered and clothed could be going elsewhere.