Hot in Iraq U Betcha!

[MOP]

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) is doing it RIGHT!!:
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them. He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights. Cut off all but "G" movies. He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. 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 let in the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs. He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them.....this is a good one......"This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back." 7 He bought Newt Gingrich' lecture series on videotape 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 might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place. You have to love this guy!! More on the AZ Sheriff. With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports: 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 Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks. "It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 1/2 years. "It's inhumane." Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes...so shut your damned mouths."

[txtaz]

Phil, You just gotta like a guy like that. I remember working in the engine room of a CGN where the temp was 128 while we were off the coast of Japan. Wet bulb globe gave us an estimated 30 min working time due to heat stress, but we still worked our 16 hour days because we were short manned. Maybe if these criminals learn what the real world is like, they might just reform and appreciate what they have.
Wes

[Forrest]

Sounds like a Florida prison in the 1950s - sans the Newt babble tapes. :biggrin: The American Correctional Association (ACA) won't allow anything close to that in State prisons. No, there are no air-conditioners in the men's prisons or TVs in cells, and before food-service privatization, the State of Florida could feed an inmate three nutritionally balanced meals for about $1.60 per day. With Airmark running the food service for us now, it’s much higher - but hay, it privatized! Almost all State correctional departments want TVs in common areas, workout areas, and smoking permitted areas. Why? Because if you don't have these things, you would need to double the number of Correctional Officers since Inmates tend to get difficult to deal with when they have nothing to do or worse, when you have 40,000 or more convicts of all walks going through nicotine withdrawal at the same time. In the institutions, Correctional Officer safety is of paramount concern. Having chain-gangs on the side of the roads sounds great, but in reality, a great number of these inmates are dangerous and should never be let outside of the fence. Here again, not enough Correctional Officers to keep tabs on a bunch of inmates who stop at nothing to escape - including take hostages and (or) kill. Yes, the legislature could appropriate more money for additional Correctional Officers, but that probably won't happen due to the high cost to the taxpayers, and the fact that most people looking for a job don't want to be a Correctional Officer. We always have vacancies for Correctional Officer positions, especially in South Florida. Being a Correctional Officer is a tough thankless job and my hat is off to them.

Little Sheriff’s departments throughout the US are always doing on thing or another in an attempt to "get tough" or make themselves or the voters feel good. Does it work to deter crime? Who knows, but I doubt it. None of these idiots committing the crime never figure that they will get caught. For these guys, local jail is for a sentence that's less than a year. Most are in for 30, 60, or 90 days for small crimes. Over a one year sentence, it's a State Correctional Institution - and I can guarantee, even with TV, it's no cake walk.

Stepping down off the soap box. :yippie:

http://www.dc.state.fl.us

[mikev]

thats the type of jails we need encitive not to commit crime bigtime

[Scott Heidt]

I agree with the get tuff policy! I have a degree in Criminology and have read all the whinny, feel good books on the correctional system. These books are written by people who live in the Hillary Clinton Village. We need to get back to the grassroots thinking of (now here's a novel idea) PUNISHMENT!

This should not be a country club. As far as officer safety, a 12 ga shotgun of an AR-15 a great equilizer. A sufficiently trained officer should be able to take out at least 8-20 crazied inmates should they decide to escape a chain gang.

I would give them their smokes though. That would keep them happy.

JUST 2 cents!

[Forrest]

. . . A sufficiently trained officer should be able to take out at least 8-20 crazied inmates should they decide to escape a chain gang . . .

We just find it to safer to the public not to take that chance. Chain gangs are OK for local jails with minor offenders and it puts on quite a show for the public, but in actuality it's not very cost effective or safe to implement chain gangs on the State level. Even JEB Bush agrees with this position as well.

We do use prison labor inside the fence and we also have Road prison throughout the state where we supply non-violent and near end-of-sentence inmates to the Department of Transportation. These Inmates do lots of work on the road side for the people of Florida, but it's not a show for the public like is a local Sheriff’s chain gang. See Misconceptions about Florida Prisons (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/myths.html).

If you can ever take a tour of Florida State Prison (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/region2/205.html), Union Correctional Institution (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/region2/213.html), or for that matter in you own backyard, Zephyrhills (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/region3/573.html), Avon Park (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/region3/503.html), Hardee (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/region4/501.html), Polk (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/region3/580.html), or Charlotte (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/facilities/region4/510.html) Correctional Institutions - all major institutions with serious bad guys, and you will find that it's far from being anything like a Country Club. I've worked on systems inside the compounds of 47 of Florida's 52 major institutions including Reception Centers, close management (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/inmates/cm.html), Mental Health, and Death Row (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/deathrow/index.html)(maximum), and I can tell you first hand that none of these places are pretty - clean, but not pretty (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/vtour/compound.html). Moreover, none of our 80,000+ inmates are having a good time . . . we see to that. In fact, if given a chance, I would bet that any inmate in the Florida system would trade places in a second with an Inmate at Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail.

[Scott Heidt]

Hey Forrest,

I agree with you. I was just being a little sarcastic, but I think that generally speaking what is frustrating to myself and I'm sure many others is how many inmates abuse the system. (i.e frivilous litigation that wastes our tax payer money and that tie up resources.) They feel their rights have been violated because they can't watch Jerry Springer on cable or have a Playboy magazine, etc.

It all comes down to funding. It is sad to say that the general public as a whole would rather not think about our correctional system, much less increase funding ( ie. pay more in taxes). Thus the correctional facilities must make due with what they have. I realize that what the inmates currently get in the way of activities, recreation, & privilages is a way to control the overcrowded inmate population in relation to the rather small size of the correctional facility staff.

However, I think that we need to cut out the programs that are not working, put an end to frivilous cases that are started by bored jailhouse lawyers and inmates, take a close look at private companies that are fleecing our tax dollars. Funding does need to be increased so we can get more prisons built and properly staff them so that maybe be can be more strict and not have to pander to inmates whims.

I still think though that we give inmates too many privilages and that needs to stop period! I used the term country club. That was more or less being alittle sarcastic. All prisons vary. There are some that are like country clubs and there are those that are very bad. Also the range of offenders varys. Some more deserving than others to be in prision.

Whatever the case as long as we can keep the correctional staff SAFE. I would not lose any sleep what so ever if we made prison life uncomfortable for the inmates. Prison is for punishment. I do believe in trying to provide programs to help inmates find work and be productive when they get out. That is important.

As far as the chain gangs I like em! Of course you're not going to give a violent offender, mentally unstable inmate, or flight risk inmate a pick axe and send them out on a public road with two guards. Those inmates (ie. murders, rapists, child molesters, terrorists, etc.) can be left back in the prison yard to sit in the heat or cold and ponder to themselves that man I sure F___ked up my life.

I'm gonna stop here. Sorry for the long post but I had to respond.

Later! :)

[Forrest]

That's OK Scott, I just don't want folks thinking that we're running a $1,682,213,854/year (http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/annual/0203/budget.html) :eek!: Country Club down here.