I'd vote for this man

[gill216]

I've no idea how long this has been doing the rounds or how much truth there is in it but I'd certainly vote for him:




USA JAIL - SOME INTERESTING READING
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

[giraffe]

It could never happen in Europe, with the EU checking up on us.

[SparkOut]

Joe Arpaio is a genuine Sheriff in USA and much of that extract is true (if not all - I've not gone and verified every claim). He's also got his detractors (mostly criticising his motives as being self-serving and that he's a "grandstander" rather than genuinely trying to deter crime - there have been several cases of brutality brought to court as well) as well as supporters. There are lots of grounds for supporting a tough stance on crime, but you should also read up about him and judge for yourself whether you think he might have the right motives, or whether he has just that bit too much power without checks and balances in place. At face value, I'd support him too, but there's always another side to the story.

[kathlyn]

I'd vote for him too. Prison is for punishment of crimes commited not a luxury hotel complex.

[Scurra]

Yes, but we used to hang people for petty theft, and that didn't stop it from happening.
Punishing criminals* is hardly a contentious issue - but that has nothing to do with deterrence, reoffending rates or rehabilitation, and I can't see anything in that story that suggests that his approach results in any better or worse oucomes than any other (I would tend to suspect that it is worse, but then I'm a pinko-commie-liberal.)

*and it should be noted that this approach is applied to everyone who is arrested in the county, which includes all those who have not been tried or sentenced. I'm not sure that's such a great idea myself.

[Bunnylump]

I'm not totally sure I'd wholly back someone like this, since I do wonder if his motives are 100% on the level. However, I do think that prisoners are ridiculously pampered here. A friend of mine was briefly employed at our local prison to give them music engineering classes. Not with a view to them going out and getting a meaningful job, but just for their amusement. Why can't I have free music engineering courses too??? Maybe I should go out and commit a few crimes.