[Stoat]

The Sun Online - Sun Says Prison camp

Prison camp

April 28, 2007
 
 

 

BRITAIN’S answer to overcrowded prisons is to promise 8,000 new jail places — by 2012 and at a cost of £1billion.

 

In the old Wild West of the Arizona desert they have a different solution: put up more tents.

As today’s Sun report reveals, tough-guy Sheriff Joe Arpaio has 1,000 prisoners under army-surplus canvas in a no-nonsense jail that cost £50,000 to erect.

And he has tough punishments for any convict caught with items that are a staple in British cells — coffee, cigarettes and porn.

Break the rules and you’ll get a spell on the chain gang wearing a striped uniform and pink underwear.

And to save taxpayers’ cash the food is past its sell-by date and Christmas dinners costs 2p each — less than is spent on the guard dogs.

Sheriff Arpaio is a hero to the decent people who keep re-electing him and who regularly give him approval ratings of over 80 per cent.

Battered on all sides by the Health and Safety Gestapo and PC pen-pushers, it’s not a popularity level Home Secretary John Reid is ever in danger of reaching.

[Stoat]

 

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

[TLI]

Our concealed carry laws would work wonders for the UK as well.

[SandRat]

Sheriff Joe would love being called the “High Lord Sheriff.”

[Jeff Chandler]

Correction:

inmates live on a vile diet of rotting food past its sell-by date

The food is neither vile nor rotting. The sell-by date is not the eat-by date.

[Mr. Mojo]

“Who knows how many crimes I have prevented because people are frightened of spending time in my jails?” - Sheriff Joe

The bottom line.

[Clint Williams]

Cool. Couple this guy with Nifong and you’ve got a duo I can buy into.

[CGTRWK]

I don’t think much of Joe Arpaio.

Joe is a showman who has achieved popularity riding the public sentiment that the justice system in general isn’t harsh enough on criminals, while his tent city demonstrably is - as he would be happy to show anyone who will look.

Where it breaks down is that his tent city isn’t a prison for dangerous felons and repeat offenders, it’s a jail with an inmate population that’s either been convicted of misdemeanors or else is awaiting trial and not yet convicted of anything. These aren’t the people I have in mind when I think criminals aren’t punished harshly enough.

With lawmakers continuously working to make everything from using plastic shopping bags to serving trans fats to eating a ham sandwich around Muslims illegal, you or I could end up in a jail a lot more easily than most people would like to believe. When that happens, I’d prefer the place be run in a civilized fashion with as few sadistic showmen around as possible.

[Zack Nguyen]

There is no heating or air conditioning in the tents and inmates live on a vile diet of rotting food past its sell-by date donated for free to save taxpayers’ money.

This cannot possibly be accurate. Rotting food?