Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.

The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.

Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF

AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

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 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.'


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 year. '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 Mouths!'

Way To Go, Sheriff!

Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

Sounds fine to me... beats prisons were they do nothing all day but fight the officers. Gives them something to focus on.. I don't see a problem...

I just moved from Phoenix a few years ago, and Sheriff Joe was one of the reasons.

I've never seen anyone else as arrogant and pompous as him.


What a tool.

Yup...I agree. Tent city is downright inhumane. I did 2 months there and it definately qulifies as cruel and un-usual punishment.

I guess you have to take the good with the bad. He is a little presumptuous about the treatment of others from the OP.

He's a gigantic self-serving example of shameless self-promotion.

Wow, so we have people that have been there. So what parts did you have a problem with. The focus on taking care of animals has been a proven self esteem builder for inmates in other prisons.

It would also seem that enduring the heat would convince me not to want to return, that is for sure. Hell I have worked out doors in Arizona and Florida in heat like that, and he's right, if soldiers can endure it than inmates can as well.

The pink outfits? Now that is brilliant, it deals with the male ego putting all the inmates on the same footing. No one is tougher than the next avoiding violence. I would not have thought of that but I see what he was getting at.

Actually I hated uniforms in catholic school, but after a day or so you never really think about them, and we as students focused on study and not clothing. It works, I got far better grades there than I did in public schools.

In a perfect world none of this would be needed because we wouldn't do things that would cause us to be there in the first place.

I rarely ever learned anything as a teen and twenty something that was made easy for me. I was hard headed and stubborn as crap. This place would have cured my a$$ fast.

He wanted young people not to return, and if it took removing those things that inmates find comforting, giving less of a reason to end up in the same trouble, I can't see the problem, but would be interested in seeing it from the inmates point of view....

I do have a problem with one thing though, the chains, i think that is uncalled for. He could have come up with something better than that. Hell it's enough of a humiliation to be on a clean up detail on the side of a main hwy I would think...

I was sent to tent city due to a clerical error. It took 2 months to sort out. Next thing I know I'm in tent city with gang-bangers and felons. Within' the first 2 weeks of me being there 3 people were killed due to gang-related conflict. I was there due to complications concerning a DUI charge. I lived in Awatukee in South Pheonix. I had no reason being there but what I saw in there was absolutely crazy. My charges were subsequently dropped and I was released.

By the way...my lawyer advised me to sue for damages but I chose not to. I just decided to move as far away from Maricopa County as possible. That was my first and only brush with the law. I have absolutely no criminal record and am an upstanding citizen. Joe Arpaio is an out-of-control, power-mad, self-serving, opportunist.

I am sorry you had such an experience.

Not knowing the man personally I can't make judgements of his actions or motives, but I have seen the insanity of our regular prisons where they do nothing all day but attack the guards and learn how to be better criminals. It seems like maybe some of his tactics would work on people not like yourself.

But you didn't answer my question which of the ideas in the original post most disturbed you?

To be perfectly honest, my experience of tent city took place in the mid-90's, so most of the current plans he has since implemented were not in place with the exception of the pink boxers, striped prison uniforms, and chain gangs which were just ways to further humiliate prisoners and basically help promote Sheriff Arpaio. He's a publicity hound, plain and simple. Seems though that since then he's chosen more productive outlets in order to serve his own agenda. Everything he did while I was there just reeked of publicity stunt.

I have to agree with you in the chain gang thing, I think that is just plain whacked, but I at least like the animal shelter idea. If i had so spend time I would like that idea.

I seem to remember a similar thing happening in Florida with bringing back the chain gang thing and I remember thinking that was disgusting idea, but they did it anyway.

To tell you the truth, I love the animal rescue idea and I think it's brilliant. I was unawre of that until i read the post. Kudos to him for that. I still suspect it's really all about publicity for him though. No doubt our prison system can run better. There are many positive things prisoners can be used to work towrds that would be beneficial to both the prisoners and society. It's a great resource that can be better utilized. I just suspect that Arpaio cares more about publicity fot himself than anything else. The animal rescue thing is brilliant though so at least something good comes out of it. Thanks for listening to me and not getting all antagonistic. It's great to talk to smart, level-headed people like yourself.

I remember trying to think of other things like the animal rescue that would work in a prison setting. I think many of us are very lucky we didn't spend some time in one, considering the dumb a$$ things we did as teens and 20 somethings and didn't get caught. So I feel for those that found them selves there, then had nothing to occupy their minds but finding ways to get back at the help. lol

I never thought of the rescue thing until I saw a similar thing in a woman's prison, where they fostered a pet until it was found home. Looks like he took it one step further. I guess in the scheme of things it didn't much matter that he did it to make himself look good, because the bigger thing is that it gave the inmates something to feel good about, and that is needed more than anything in that situation.

I will have to ponder other things that would be good.

I see those prison shows on msnbc alot, attracted to them for some odd reason, but some times I think that prisons like the idea of punishment so much they can't really see what good can come from compassion, they actually like being antagonistic, which in the long run I don't think works on all prisoners.

And sometimes when you see some of these gang punks it's hard to get past their attitude, and it might bring out that in all of us to some degree. In the end I do see the value of occupying the mind in healthy ways.

It's just a different culture. Luckily I've never become institutionalized. It seems to permeate people, like they never shake it. I remember doing community service once in Michigan. They took us to a high school and gave each of us a rag and a bucket of water to clean scool lockers. We were supposed to be there for 10 hours and there were at least 20 of us. After an hour all the lockers were wiped down. We spent the rest of the day smoking pot and playing basketball in the gym. I remember being pissed cuz' I would'vr rather done something beneficial and here was a great resource of possible help being wasted.

Ya, it seems like our authority figures have no imagination. Punishment is the only way they understand and frankly it rarely if ever works. I guess that's maybe because few even want to work in such jobs with juvenilles or inmates, so they don't get people with imaginations, they get people that need the job.

Personally,a chain gang of violent people in pink pants out in a neighborhood would be frightening .Non violent offenders should be doing community service not prison or chain gangs.
I do applaud the SPCA idea but everything else just sounds like the man being a bastard to me.

Ya' know, here in Kentucky there's a program that matched abused women with abused and neglected race horses that is very successful. They help each other out in their recovery. It's a win/win and it's all positive. There's so many good things that we should be doing but aren't due to lack of imagination and a failure to utilize resources. I don't care who you are...everybody needs to feel like they're making a difference. Give people an opportunity that they otherwise wouldn't have and they'll take it, if for nothing else ,just to feel good knowing they're doing something positive for a change.

sounds like somebody likes him

Yea...that's my opinion exactly.