# Joe Arpaio **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 28, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398 "2012-11-28T19:37:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/1 "2012-11-28T19:37:34Z")
My sister in law posted this today: > [@](#): > > For those not familiar with Joe Arpio, he is the County Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. He keeps getting re-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.Inmates sleep in tents! > > 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. Men work in Pink “Clean and Sober” Shirts. Their underwear is also Pink! > 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 2009), 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 there too, and they have to walk all day in that sun, wearing full battle gear and getting shot at, and THEY have not committed any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!” > > Sheriff Joe was just re-elected for the fourteenth time as Sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona. This was our exchange: > [@](#): > > April R: He sounds like a jerk with too much power and an agenda. > > SIL: April, I am glad he is doing this, why should those in jail live better than me? > > April R: Because if you are Christian you shouldn’t purposely cause people to suffer no matter what they have done. It’s sadistic. He is practicing torture not incarceration. He is allowed to get away with it because people like to see their fellow man suffer. Its sick. I am positive Jesus didn’t teach this. > > SIL: if that is what you think, fine. But I don’t see it like that. They aren’t suffering from anything. They have a roof over their heads, clothing to wear, they have to pay for food - just like we do. I don’t see it your way. > > April R: You have to sleep in a tent in 116 degree heat in your underwear? You work on the side of the road chained to a line of your co-workers? You are forced to wear certain clothing in order to cast dispersions on your gender? I think I am going to start having to seriously make an effort to ignore people on FB. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/2 "2012-11-28T19:46:06Z")
Some of your details are a little off the mark, but I’ll go along with ‘He sounds like a jerk with too much power and an agenda.’ If all he was doing was running an efficient jail the argument would be much different. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/3 "2012-11-28T19:56:30Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Some of your details are a little off the mark, but I’ll go along with ‘He sounds like a jerk with too much power and an agenda.’ If all he was doing was running an efficient jail the argument would be much different. Which details are those? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/4 "2012-11-28T20:01:03Z")
I believe the chain gangs are voluntary, and there are plenty of volunteers because it beats sitting in a tent in the sun all day. The pink underwear was started to keep the men from leaving the jail with the issued underwear on. Some of the cost saving steps are common in other jails. None of that makes up for the numerous violations of rights and his abuse of the system. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/5 "2012-11-28T20:09:12Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I believe the chain gangs are voluntary, and there are plenty of volunteers because it beats sitting in a tent in the sun all day. The pink underwear was started to keep the men from leaving the jail with the issued underwear on. Some of the cost saving steps are common in other jails. None of that makes up for the numerous violations of rights and his abuse of the system. Thanks for clearing that up. But according to his wiki page (which isn’t the bastion of legitimacy I know, but the best I could find) he isn’t using the pink underwear as a theft deterrent at all. He likes the attention it gets him. > [@](#): > > Pink underwear > > One of his most visible public-relations actions was the introduction of pink underwear, which the Maricopa County Sheriff’s website cites as being, “world-famous.”[42] Arpaio subsequently started to sell customized pink boxers (with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s logo and “Go Joe”) as a fund-raiser for Sheriff’s Posse Association. Despite allegations of misuse of funds received from these sales, Arpaio declined to provide an accounting for the money.[43] > > Arpaio’s success in gaining press coverage with the pink underwear resulted in his extending the use of the color. He introduced pink handcuffs, using the event to promote his book, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, America’s Toughest Sheriff.[44] Arpaio has said “I can get elected on pink underwear…I’ve done it five times.” > > Volunteer chain gangs > > In 1995, Arpaio reinstituted chain gangs. In 1996, he expanded the chain gang concept by instituting female volunteer chain gangs.[40] Female inmates work seven hours a day (7 a.m. to 2 p.m.), six days a week. He has also instituted the world’s first all-juvenile volunteer chain gang; volunteers earn high school credit toward a diploma.[41][45][46] Man is a real piece of work. What an a-hole. I am surprised he hasn’t tried running for President. It doesn’t say the adult male chain gangs are volunteer, just the female and juvenile ones. Do you have a cite that clarifies how adult male chain gangs work? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/6 "2012-11-28T20:13:11Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > My sister in law posted this today: > This was our exchange: > > I think I am going to start having to seriously make an effort to ignore people on FB. Thank you so much for your FB update. We sincerely care about the stupid bullshit you and your FB buddies post on FB. I think you should tell everyone on FB about this FB update as I am sure they will want to know as much as we do. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/7 "2012-11-28T20:15:47Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The pink underwear was started to keep the men from leaving the jail with the issued underwear on. Nothing wrong with basic prison orange, lime green, or some other more neutral but obvious color. The cost savings were probably a factor, but a deliberate attempt to _unnecessarily_ demean the prisoners was almost certainly part of the appeal. The man’s a douchebag, at best. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/8 "2012-11-28T20:19:01Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Thank you so much for your FB update. We sincerely care about the stupid bullshit you and your FB buddies post on FB. I think you should tell everyone on FB about this FB update as I am sure they will want to know as much as we do. It’s a PIT thread asshole. Go to Great Debates if you want a less FB heavy discussion. Good day, moron. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/9 "2012-11-28T20:20:05Z")
And if \*\*April R \*\* said she’d had this conversation by email, would you still be a jerk about it? eta: Beaten to the punch! ---
**Author:** ![cleveland024](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a87d85/32.png) [@cleveland024](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleveland024)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/10 "2012-11-28T20:22:00Z")
We don’t enjoy watching them suffer, we feel good knowing that these criminals are being punished for what they have done… and being punished efficiently. Also, the more harsh the punishment the less people that are going to be repeat offenders. Furthermore, I’ve had to work outside in over 100 degree weather in jeans, t-shirt, safety vest, and a hard hat for 12 or more hours a day 5 days a week… their punishment isn’t so harsh, watch “Locked Up” on the history channel other prisons are much worse. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/11 "2012-11-28T20:23:43Z")
Ah. This would explain it: > [@](#): > > Drunky Smurf > > Join Date: Dec 2006 > Location: Smurf Village. > Posts: 3,706 > Quote: > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by BrainGlutton > > Well, Arpaio won re-election, anyway. > > Awesome. Hopefully we’ll get more threads of leftitards crying in their wheaties. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/12 "2012-11-28T20:25:35Z")
> [@cleveland024](#): > > We don’t enjoy watching them suffer, we feel good knowing that these criminals are being punished for what they have done… and being punished efficiently.\*\* Also, the more harsh the punishment the less people that are going to be repeat offenders.\*\* Furthermore, I’ve had to work outside in over 100 degree weather in jeans, t-shirt, safety vest, and a hard hat for 12 or more hours a day 5 days a week… their punishment isn’t so harsh, watch “Locked Up” on the history channel other prisons are much worse. Is this substantiated by any statistics coming out of Arpaio’s district? If punishment for crime was a deterrent we wouldn’t have over populated prisons. > [@](#): > > As reported on BBC Radio 4 on 2 September 2005, the recidivism rates for released prisoners in the United States of America is 60% compared with 50% in the United Kingdom. The report attributed the lower recidivism rate in the UK to a focus on rehabilitation and education of prisoners compared with the US focus on punishment, deterrence and keeping potentially dangerous individuals away from society. Death is the only deterrent to recidivism. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/13 "2012-11-28T20:26:04Z")
Prisoners are sleeping in tents when it’s over 100 degrees out and people are actually concerned that they have to wear pink underwear?😕 Really, that’s a dire violation of human rights? I’d be more concerned that he’s feeding people for .20 a meal. Other than that, I’m not feeling the outrage. Certainly it’s not a fun place to be and the dude may be a power abusing douche bag, but it _is_ a prison. Seems to me cable and porn and gym equipment are luxuries. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/14 "2012-11-28T20:31:01Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Thank you so much for your FB update. We sincerely care about the stupid bullshit you and your FB buddies post on FB. I think you should tell everyone on FB about this FB update as I am sure they will want to know as much as we do. Thank you so much for yet another in a long line of retarded posts. Consistency is an underappreciated virtue. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/15 "2012-11-28T20:35:13Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Certainly it’s not a fun place to be and the dude may be a power abusing douche bag, but it _is_ a prison. Seems to me cable and porn and gym equipment are luxuries. Actually, a jail not a prison. You do know there _is_ a difference, right? As in jails are for misdemeanors or short-term incarceration while awaiting transfer to a proper prison, not for long-term handling of hardcore felons? Beyond that, even in prisons, the purpose of some of those things (and porn isn’t a usual thing, even in prison) isn’t to make it comfortable for inmates but to keep them from going “Lord of the Flies” and making a rotten job harder for the guards. The pink underwear was just one thing, but the man has a habit of _unnecessarily_ making things harder for his charges if not outright violating human rights. It’s sadistic, at best, which is not what you want to see in a man who is, in theory, impartial. ---
**Author:** ![Batfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Batfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batfish)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/16 "2012-11-28T20:36:39Z")
So what’s the recidivism rate of Maricopa County versus other Arizona counties? Or the country at large? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/17 "2012-11-28T20:37:32Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > It’s sadistic, at best, which is not what you want to see in a man who is, in theory, impartial. The hell of it is people don’t want to see someone who’s impartial, they want to see someone giving criminals hell. Because after all, if you’re in jail you must deserve whatever you get, right? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/18 "2012-11-28T20:40:30Z")
Arpaio is correct. If more of our jails were run this way we’d have a lower rate of recidivism. We’d be spending less tax money too. Win. Caution: Anecdotal evidence which doesn’t prove anything ensues: Good friend, moved to Arizona a few years ago. Female, highly paid exec in the health care business. Got picked up DUI coming home from a party one night, got to spend a month on work release in Sheriff Joe’s tent city. Came to visit over Thanksgiving. We went to dinner at an Italian spot four blocks from where I live and I drove her rental car home because she was too scared to drive after having had one glass of wine. This woman has been a gregarious and confident drinker and driver all her life and wouldn’t listen to anyone who tried to get her not to drive after she’d been drinking. Now she won’t drive after one little glass of restaurant wine, and in a state not Arizona to boot. Thanks, Sheriff Joe! 🙂 With regard to the poor guy who’d committed a crime serious enough to get sentenced to twelve years even in today’s court system, it’s my understanding that Arpaio runs a jail, not a prison, and that inmates held there are held pending trial or to serve sentences of one year or less. Is that not the case here, or is this inmate’s complaint fiction? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/19 "2012-11-28T20:40:39Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Nothing wrong with basic prison orange, lime green, or some other more neutral but obvious color. The cost savings were probably a factor, but a deliberate attempt to _unnecessarily_ demean the prisoners was almost certainly part of the appeal. > > The man’s a douchebag, at best. I’m not going to argue the details of running an efficient jail. The guy’s at least a douchebag so that’s the problem, not pink underwear. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398/20 "2012-11-28T20:42:47Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > It’s a PIT thread asshole. Go to Great Debates if you want a less FB heavy discussion. Good day, moron. If we get a Pit thread about every stupid thing everyone reads on Facebook (which we seem to be getting from you) the Pit will get very busy. And stupid. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joe-arpaio/642398.md?page=2)