n short: Sheriff Arapaio will hold a Christmas caroling contest in his jail. The winner gets that coveted prize, food.
Yes, you read that right. Fourteen cents. One cannot help but note the artful wording, “vaguely resembles”. Quite.
“Tough but humane” in much the same way that 14 cents worth of God-alone-knows-what! “vaguely resembles” a Christmas dinner.
Dear Og, what a vile, odious, self-righteous bucket of clap pus. May baby scorpions miraculously infest your prostate.
Oh, the punchline! Almost forgot!
(Emphasis added in paroxysms of revulsion and disgust)
They haven’t even been found guilty yet! How many, do you figure, are there on two-bit charges but couldn’t raise bail? What are the chances you could find at least two people there who were better human beings that Joe Arapaio on his best day?
I hate Joe Arpaio (note the spelling), a lot. Hearing this shitbag talk about the chaos that would ensue were marijuana to be legalized makes my eyes roll enough to nearly pop out of my skull.
But really, you’re pissed off because they held a caroling contest in jail? I read all of this, tried to find the outrage within me, and couldn’t. There are plenty of other things to get angry at Joe for. But this? This is meh.
The most asinine thing is to see that regardless of the cheapness that he wants to show (A plus among the right wingers over here) right wingers** do not wonder** why Arpaio still wastes more money than other departments in the nation to do the same things.
You would think that in these days of shortfalls the Sheriff Department would be affected, no sirree, health care and education will suffer more cuts before even reigning on the waste this guy is causing.
You took the words right out of my mouth. I clicked on the thread with excitement, ready to stir up my perpetual hate-storm for Goblin Joe, but this is way meh.
“The federal government, states, counties, and many individual cities have facilities to confine people. Generally, “prison” refers to facilities for holding convicted felons (offenders who commit crimes where the sentence is at least one year). Individuals awaiting trial, being held pending citations for non-custodial offenses, and those convicted of misdemeanors (crimes which carry a sentence of less than one year), are generally held in county jails.”
Apparently it outrages you to the core that any criminal suspects might be behind bars pending trial, but it’s a mystery why you think the Maricopa County Jail is unique in this perfidy.
To alleviate the unappealing jail food problem, you might be able to make a donation to jail commissary accounts or send care packages. I’m sure the inmates would be grateful and want to be your pen pals (or even more).
Just guessing, but guessing that the tent thing is for the convicted, who are not accorded the amenities and dignity reserved for those who have only been charged.
Since when is “all the trimmings” mashed potatoes and cookies?
Fourteen cents a meal. Think about that, people. Please. Fourteen cents a meal.
I assume that there are laws and regulations to ensure that prisoners receive nutritious and healthy diets, and that Arapaio is following them. I’d like to know how he does it.
Um, no, apparently not. Prisons must feed prisoners something, and that seems to be as far as the laws go. Here is a pretty interesting overview of prison food laws.
I believe what outrages him is the idea that the prisoners are deliberately denied pleasant food–not merely as the inevitable result of a slim budget, but as a form of punishment. That sort of attitude–gruel 365 days a week–seems at least defensible when talking about punishing convicted criminals, but out of place in terms of people jailed pending charges.
Guess what? They’re deprived of their liberty too. And for the same reason. Where’s the outrage there?
Let’s face it, if you’re accused of a crime - which 99.9% of the time you’ve actually committed (“CITE!!!”) - then life isn’t going to be too pleasant for a number of reasons (2" thick mattresses, thin blankets, cold stainless steel toilets, no privacy, no freedom, and utterly crappy roommates, just to name a few) and they will remain that way until you either make bail or the charges get dropped.
So why all the whinging in this case? Is it perhaps because this case involves a sheriff who tries to be tough on crime? And what is it with liberals and criminals anyway? If it was up to you guys, there wouldn’t be nobody doin’ time nowhere for nothin’. Gotta keep that evil justice system at bay, you know, 'cause otherwise the streets wouldn’t be safe in our own homes…Oh, wait! We’ve got that already!
So can somebody please explain to me again just how it is that all this liberal concern over criminal’s rights makes our society more civilized, ‘cause I’m just not seein’ it.
I mean, I realize we don’t want the Gestapo dragging us off in the middle of the night, but really, do we need to be worrying about the creature comforts of rapists, thieves and murderers who thanks to liberal ideology are only gonna do ten or fifteen years anyway?
While I understand and can appreciate the “tough on crime” and not giving our prisoners exorbitant perks, the whole caroling contest to win a good meal still seems less like punishment and more like plain dickish behavior. If it were a reward for something that might be more towards rehabilitation (education or even plain old good behavior) I probably wouldn’t feel that way. This just seems like making people perform tricks for your amusement.
Then again, I’m not much of a fan of Joe Arpaio any more. His “tough on crime” stance seems to be more about getting attention for himself these days than anything else.
Oh, I don’t know. How is that any more mean than a caroling contest in a private firm to win prizes or money? I don’t think most people regard it as mean that the employees who don’t win don’t get prizes even though they’d almost certainly like to have them. Arpaio is simply offering a perk as a prize for winning the contest. I’m just not really seeing that as being cruel.
Arpaio’s an idiot. And I used to run prisons for a living. His jail is not well-run by any reasonable standard - he pays more money and gets worse results. The only thing he accomplishs is publicizing himself.
But all that said, I’ll add that the fourteen cents a meal figure isn’t necessarily as outrageous as it looks. It’s economics of scale. If you’re feeding several hundred people the same meal, you can really cut down on your production costs by dealing in bulk. I won’t claim fourteen cents but we normally paid an average of about seventy cents per person per meal. And the food was decent enough that I would eat it.