A cite? Okay, let’s ask a professional.
Nemo, you’ve spent several decades working in corrections and you currently run one of the largest prisons in the country; so what’s your opinion on how Joe Arpaio is running the Maricopa County jail system?
Well, Nemo, based on my experience I’d say he’s doing a terrible job.
Thanks for dropping by, Nemo.
No problem.
Well, there you have it. Testimony from somebody who knows what he’s talking about.
getting your daddy to type out an opinion doesn’t exactly qualify as a cite for quantifiable information.
the link (on your link) to the original article didn’t work. Do you have the original post showing the 41 million dollar figure? I would like to read the article but I couldn’t find it. A found a couple of articles about individual lawsuits which would would add up to that figure quickly if there less than a dozen successful suits.
Actually if I had done that, it would have. My father, like me, ran prisons for a living and had several decades of experience in the subject.
What are your qualifications on this issue?
From the OP:
‘Family members of inmates who have died or been injured in jail custody have filed lawsuits against the sheriff’s office. Maricopa County has paid more than $43 million in settlement claims during Arpaio’s tenure.’
Some of the individual cases:
In a subsequent lawsuit, an attorney for the sheriff’s office described the amount of methamphetamine in Agster’s system as 17 times the known lethal dose.
The lawsuit resulted in a $9 million jury verdict against the county, the sheriff’s office, and Correctional Health Services.
…
Norberg’s parents filed a lawsuit against Arpaio and his office. The lawsuit was settled for $8.25 million.
…
Crenshaw’s family filed a lawsuit against Arpaio and his office, which resulted in an award of $2 million.
…
Richard Post was a paraplegic inmate arrested in 1996 for possession of marijuana and criminal trespass. Post was placed in a restraint chair by guards and his neck was broken in the process. The event, caught on video, shows guards smiling and laughing while Post is being injured. Because of his injuries, Post has lost much of the use of his arms. Post settled his claims against the Sheriff’s office for $800,000.
…
Flanders suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the attack. On appeal, Flanders was awarded $635,532, of which Arpaio was personally responsible for thirty-five percent.
So just to sum up - this Sheriff costs the taxpayers millions.
He thinks criminals are subhumans. What more does one need?
and you think you can read minds. So what am I thinking now?
Well good for you. Too bad you can’t respond with the stature and knowledge you pride yourself on.
I asked for a cite for the original article listing all the cases so I could read it.
My qualifications for asking the question is that I want to know.
arpaio.com is a website that details Arpaio’s perfidy. One of the founders of the site is a former MCSO Lieutenant who got tired of the man’s antics.
Phoenix New Times has been cited before. Put “target practice” to bring up a series of articles they ran last year detailing why they do not like him.
I simply wish that he’d move to Texas and run for sheriff there so you could vote for him.
Others have quoted news reports; just to be clear, are you asking for primary-source cites, or questioning bias in the sources referenced?
Insofar as the policies apparently have costed millions in lawsuit settlements, disproportionately to the prison population, from where I sit that looks like unsound management even if it’s obviously good politics.
The donated food is probably not that significant a cost-factor, though, Magiver, even Arpaio himself acknowleged that the last cutbacks meant marginal savings of only pennies per ration; the not building/maintaining new permanent jail facilities would be the much larger saving but one would need more info to analyze whether it would have gotten to the the $40-million range in the time period. The bulk of that expense would be one-time capital expenditure, as opposed to lawsuits being filed and settled year after year for as long as he insists on maintaining the policies; even considering the recurrent maintenance cost one would need to analyze then if the avoided cost in lawsuit settlements would mean a net plus or a net loss in running a more traditional system vs. the Arpaio system.
But if a majority of voters in the county are enamored of the idea of “socking it to the criminals” no matter the cost, it’s their problem. In any case I find the bullying of critics the more censurable aspect of his activities; I can understand having a position that hardcore punitive policies are what’s needed to fight crime, I can’t respect using the power of office to shut up those who’d oppose it while parading yourself as the paragon of Law Enforcement.
The Phoenix New Times had an interesting story this week listing all his misdeeds and lambasting the federal government for not doing enough to rein him in. I thought I’d post the link here:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2009-12-10/news/the-pink-negro-president-barack-obama-the-preppy-ivy-league-lawyer-hasn-t-been-man-enough-to-confront-the-evil-personified-by-joe-arpaio-and-andrew-thomas-in-arizona/1
If this story is true, I think the appropriate response would be to have Arpaio and his staff put down like a pack of mad dogs:
“Asshole” does not begin to do it.
He’s a bully, a sadist, and a tyrant.
He almost makes Cheney look human by comparison.
I realize this is an old thread, but how did it wind up Arpaio’s fault that this guy took a massive overdose of amphetamines?
My Googling only revealed that Agster was mentally retarded. The autopsy mentioned that he died of meth poisoning.
Regards,
Shodan
There were two autopsies done and the Sheriff’s department and Mr. Agster’s family disagreed on the cause of death. The Sheriff’s department argued that Mr. Agster died of an overdose of methamphetamine, and his family argued (and the jury agreed) that he died of asphyxiation due to improper use of a restraint chair. The jury also found CHS (the company that provides medical service inside the jail) responsible because they waited 15 minutes to attempt resuscitation.
This comes after an out of court settlement by the county in 1999 as a result of the 1996 death of Scott Norberg, who also died after improper use of a restraint chair by sheriff deputies.
Well, since this is bumped up, and I happened upon this story today, might as well mention it. As far as I can tell, Arpaio and County Prosecutor Andrew Thomas are charging a judge they disagree with with bribery, despite admitting that there’s no evidence of any bribery taking place.
Closing zombie thread.