In all of our nations jails and prisons there are many rules
and regulations that serve as attempts to curtail aggressive and insidious
behavior by inmates. Jails usually have a standard issue “uniform” with little
to no other options so that all the inmates look alike. This is an attempt to
strip the identity from prisoners in a sense. The theory behind this is that if
everyone looks alike, there would be no reason to fight each other. If you’ve
ever seen the television program lock-up or know anything about prison, you
know there are fights constantly taking place within its confines. Prison is a
sentence. It is supposed to be the ultimate adult “time out”, along with
attempts to correct past criminal behaviors of inmates.
Joe Arpaio takes it to a different level in the Maricopa
County Jail in Phoenix Arizona. You may have heard of this famous sheriff for
his somewhat odd style of running the jail. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals has recently taken issue with Mr. Arpaio’s style.
In the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix, inmates eat surplus
food twice daily. The jail has earned the moniker “tent city” because there
is a section of the institution that houses inmates outside in tents. Imagine sleeping
outside on a summer night in Phoenix Arizona. Arpaio also instituted chain
gangs where inamtes are chained together in work seven hours a day, five to
six days a week. The Sheriff has come under much scrutiny for these actions
alone, but his latest problem with courts and human rights activists is due to
something else; something else that Arpaio and the Maricopa County Jail might
be best known for: pink underwear.
Inmates are given pink underwear and also pink handcuffs
on some occasions. Arpaio seems to relish in the spotlight, believing himself
to be somewhat of a criminal justice celebrity. There are plenty of people who
support the Sheriff, but more that don’t. Joe is no stranger to controversy and
has been on the wrong end of a long list of civil suits, bad press and
allegations of misuse of funds, racial profiling, and abuse of power.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said earlier
in March that the use of pink underwear is unexplained, and is punishment
without legal justification. The court also noted that the use of the color
pink was meant to strip prisoners’ masculinity.All things are dismissed as something to the tune of "poppycock" by Mr. Arpaio.
There are a few things here that are worth the time to ask
questions about and form an opinion on.
1) Is the use of pink underwear, pink handcuffs, tents in
100+ degree Arizona weather, and two meals of less than desirable surplus food
overkill for just a jail? These people are not even in a prison and a lot of
them haven’t yet been convicted of the crime they are accused of.
2) Is there a better environment to fit this type of
treatment? Would something like this work better in a maximum security prison?
3) There are many who have taken shots at Sheriff Joe Arpaio
because of his unorthodox way of running the prison. Are they justified? Do the inmates have a right to complain?
I encourage all who are interested to do more research of Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Prison. They have been the site of televisions "Lock Up" program before. You might be able to find that episode somewhere. Take a look for yourself and maybe you could understand why so many people are not happy with Joe and his "tent city".
To the right is a Maricopa County Inmate in his tent and pink underwear.
Below is one of the famous tents of "tent city".
I think this situation is unreal! Even though they are criminals and its better that they are in jail than on the streets they are still people. The pink underwear and pink handcuffs are stupid in my eyes because honestly its just a color so they can get over it but having them sleep and work in 100+ degree weather is unacceptable! I can't even sleep in my room if its close to 80 degrees and when its almost 90 outside I get frustrated. I could never imagine working and trying to sleep in those conditions. Prisoner or not no one deserves that treatment.
ReplyDeleteGo Sheriff Joe! I would disagree with you that there are many more people that do not support him. The recidivism rate has gone down in that County since he started implementing his programs. If they were in a building instead of tents it's not like it would be air conditioned. I argue that it's not any hotter the way he has it set up than it would be in a building. My favorite thing he has done is the giant vacancy sign he put up outside the jail, classic! He obviously has the support of the people in his county because sheriff is an elected position and he keeps being re-elected. They have the power to vote him out of they don't like his policy, so obviously something he is doing is working. I am not saying that someone who is in jail loses all their rights, but they definitely lose some of them. I don't believe that criminals should live better in jail on tax dollars than someone who is working at least forty hours a week and struggling to make ends meet. This is just my opinion and I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me but that is a great thing about this country; everyone can have their own opinion. In mine I say keep it up Joe!
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