# Joe Arapaio, Sentient Pustule **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 25, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376 "2010-12-25T21:14:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/101 "2010-12-27T07:58:08Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Seeing as you are talking about prison, when this thread is about a jail, it seems you are the one who doesn’t know the difference. > > Was the fact that this contest includes people who haven’t been convicted not enough proof that we weren’t talking about prison? And people call me a tard. You may well be a tard. I was reading this thread and saw that some think that people in jail are or have been convicted. Prison is where you go after you have been convicted. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/102 "2010-12-27T08:04:26Z")
> [@Claude\_Remains](#): > > You may well be a tard. I was reading this thread and saw that some think that people in jail are or have been convicted. Prison is where you go after you have been convicted. Unless you were convicted of a misdemeanor. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/103 "2010-12-27T08:15:47Z")
Anyway, back to jail… I’ve been there many times and the last thing on my mind is the cuisine. Of course the food is perhaps… a little under par, what the fuck do you expect? Most guys I know will only consume the milk and juice in cartons and maybee fresh fruit and give the rest to others in the hope that they are gonna bond out before they get really hungry. If you find youself in for more than a couple of days or up to a year, you rolled the fuckin dice not the sheriff. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/104 "2010-12-27T08:19:13Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Unless you were convicted of a misdemeanor. Fuckin semantics. Who goes to prison for a misdemeanor? ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/105 "2010-12-27T08:37:52Z")
I see what I did there. :smack: However post #103 stands. Good night nurse… ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/106 "2010-12-27T11:12:13Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Most people who are arrested have done something that causes them to get arrested. Or, are you suggesting that random people are being pulled off the street and thrown into jail? I think I said that wasn’t happening earlier. Are you really not familiar with the expression “getting tossed”? Some of these bastards have been caught holding a joint. Others haven’t paid outstanding parking tickets. But hey, you can afford a lawyer, or borrow money from someone who can, so it can’t happen to you. And, really, that’s what’s important. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/107 "2010-12-27T13:51:52Z")
> [@Claude\_Remains](#): > > If the Mc Donalalds Corp. one day offered to feed every inmate 3 squares a day there would still be people saying that _THAT_ is inhumane. When was the last time you thought about poor Charles Manson and sent him a warm letter and some home baked cookies? Because Charles Mason, is exactly like an innocent person wrongly accused of a crime, or someone who committed a crime like being drunk in public. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/108 "2010-12-27T15:28:11Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > Are you really not familiar with the expression “getting tossed”? Some of these bastards have been caught holding a joint. Others haven’t paid outstanding parking tickets. But hey, you can afford a lawyer, or borrow money from someone who can, so it can’t happen to you. And, really, that’s what’s important. Again these are not random people from off the street. If holding a joint or unpaid parking tickets will get you thrown in jail, guess what? Don’t hold a joint and don’t park illegally. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/109 "2010-12-27T15:35:56Z")
If you get a ticket, might be a good idea to pay it unless you like livin’ in a tent and eating bologna sandwiches. As for holding…well, if you’re doing that you fully accept the risk / consequences. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/110 "2010-12-27T15:45:13Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Again these are not random people from off the street. If holding a joint or unpaid parking tickets will get you thrown in jail, guess what? Don’t hold a joint and don’t park illegally. How about looking like a guy they have a description of for some crime? How about having someone file a false report against you? How about just being in the wrong place at the wrong time? You seem to assume people are guilty and should be punished upon mere accusation. As if being accused of a crime is a crime in it’s self. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/111 "2010-12-27T15:47:34Z")
Regardless of the hijack about whether people in jail or prison are innocent or could have avoided it or whatever, those people deserve to be treated humanely by society, and that includes being fed a balanced and healthy diet. I get no sadistic thrill out of imagining an inmate choking down a sandwich of moldy bread and rancid bologna. There’s something wrong with people who think that’s fine; wrong in a sociopathic sense that differs in degree, not in kind, from the criminals they wish to suffer. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/112 "2010-12-27T15:57:12Z")
> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#): > > How about looking like a guy they have a description of for some crime? How about having someone file a false report against you? How about just being in the wrong place at the wrong time? > > You seem to assume people are guilty and should be punished upon mere accusation. As if being accused of a crime is a crime in it’s self. There’s no indication that a person described in any of your scenarios would ever make it to a tent “cell”. Maybe I’m wrong, but one would think that the tents are not “Barney Miller holding cells” or overnight drunk tanks but are utilized for longer term jail inmates. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/113 "2010-12-27T16:01:36Z")
> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#): > > You seem to assume people are guilty and should be punished upon mere accusation. I’ve already answered your first paragraph earlier. People are in jail. How do you put people in jail without it being ‘punishment’? ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/114 "2010-12-27T16:10:15Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > …those people deserve to be treated humanely by society, and that includes being fed a balanced and healthy diet. Who says they are not being fed a healthy diet? You can point to specific instances where they have been cited for spoiled food, but again, I ask where are the starving people, where are the indications that people are becoming sick because of it? In comparison to other jurisdictions, please. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/115 "2010-12-27T16:46:46Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Who says they are not being fed a healthy diet? You can point to specific instances where they have been cited for spoiled food, but again, I ask where are the starving people, where are the indications that people are becoming sick because of it? In comparison to other jurisdictions, please. Post #40 has information on other jurisdictions in Arizona. Post #66 has a court case specifically against Arapaio. It’s apparent that they are not being fed a nutritious and well-balanced diet. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/116 "2010-12-27T16:48:35Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Who says they are not being fed a healthy diet? You can point to specific instances where they have been cited for spoiled food, but again, I ask where are the starving people, where are the indications that people are becoming sick because of it? In comparison to other jurisdictions, please. Starvation is not synonymous with malnutrition. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/117 "2010-12-27T17:01:50Z")
**Frank** , your first link just details that one jurisdiction is providing different, more expensive food. Not that it is required or that it is necessary to keep the prisoners healthy. What is apparent is that Joe isn’t following an arbitrary number according to the courts. Is there any indication that prisoners are suffering in his jail, health wise, compared to any other location? There are studies that say low calorie diets are actually good for you long term. Maybe Joe is just looking out for their long term health…(Yeah, I can’t write that without chuckling, either). [QUOTE=Fear Itself] Starvation is not synonymous with malnutrition. [/QUOTE] And the proof that this is happening? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/118 "2010-12-27T17:18:30Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Who says they are not being fed a healthy diet? The US District Court says that: [http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/04/08/20100408maricopa-county-jail-conditions.html](http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/04/08/20100408maricopa-county-jail-conditions.html) > [@](#): > > Wake issued a landmark ruling in October 2008 that found conditions in the jails failed to meet constitutional standards in key areas, including the quality of food, inmate access to recreation areas, temperatures in which inmates taking psychiatric medication are held, and the quality and availability of medical and mental-health care. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/119 "2010-12-27T17:47:20Z")
Proof, dammit! Not the whining of some liberal activist judge! _Proof!_ ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376/120 "2010-12-27T18:25:24Z")
Not to side with **Uzi** , whose lack of compassion I am finding difficult to stomach, but I think he’s asking for evidence that the conditions ruled on in 2008 are still in place here at the end of 2010. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arapaio-sentient-pustule/565376.md?page=7)