Sheriff Joe Arpaio: I know he is an a-hole. I know he is a Republican

[NNN0LHI]

I also know I would do anything in my power to avoid spending some time in his tent prison in dressed in pink coveralls out in the desert. Anything.

I hate this man. He was on CNN earlier ripping the privately run prisons though. He said they are like hotels and they want you to come back again so they can stay in business. He said no one wants to come back to his county run prison after being there once.

Does he have a point?

Again I hate this man.

But is he right?

Don

[AZBlue]

1. I think he does.

I don't always agree with him on things, but I do agree prison shouldn't be fun.

[endarkenment]

5. I disagree that private prisons are 'fun'.

That would need to be established with some facts. The PIC does not depend on 'fun prisons' for a continual flow of 'clients', it depends on the WOD. Confusing this fact of systemic corruption with the standard rightwing bullshit of 'comfy prisons' is just smoke and mirrors.

[originalpckelly]

9. In fact, I think I remember seeing a 60 Minutes report talking about...

the torture a private prison inflicted on a mentally ill inmate. Quite horrible these places are. Really truly awful people who run them, anyone would have to be awful to make money off a crime and not be involved in stopping it or preventing it.

[depakid]

13. Yet the poster makes an interesting point

Many Arizonans think like that- which is why this man has a job.

Whether it's justified or not- and no matter what evidence or proof there might be, they're unlikely to change their attitudes. At least, until they- or someone they care about is abused.

[endarkenment]

14. yes of course you can get elected by torturing prisoners

his popularity does not validate or invalidate his point. "Tough on crime" has always sold well.

[originalpckelly]

2. Yeah, on this I think he's very right. Prisons are clearly something...

that are a part of the legitimate powers of a government. The horrors of a private run prisons cannot even begin to be comprehended. He's right completely, it's so fucking awful that a business would be created based upon the suffering of human beings.

[endarkenment]

3. not if you think that prisons are not simply dungeons

for inflicting pain and suffering.

My belief is that they are places for separating bad people from society and offering those bad people opportunities for that axiom of liberalism: rehabilitation.

[originalpckelly]

6. Yeah, but I think whateverhisname is saying...

is that private companies don't have a real motivation to reform people, because they money off of housing the criminals.

[endarkenment]

11. and I think that is unsubstantiated bullshit

I agree that prisons ought to be public institutions and not for-profit businesses, but I just think it is unsubstantiated nonsense that private prisons are making the prison experience fun so that people come back and visit. They are making the prison experience profitable by cutting all corners and investing heavily in lobbying efforts to make sure that the PIC continues to move into the private sector and that nobody does anything stupid like end the WOD that would really threaten their bottom line.

[Ayesha]

15. I think they can be both

There's no reason why prisons can't offer rehabilitation AND be a genuinely sucky place that inmates would never want to return to.

If you make efforts to improve yourself - drug rehab, counseling, taking classes, then you get indoor accomodations and a couple hours of basic cable TV. If you don't, it's pink jumpsuits, tents, and the chain gang. It's very simple and I think it would do the job.

[ThomCat]

4. How bad does it have to be before you'd be satisfied?

How inhumane and degrading is acceptable?

I think there should be some standards, set and reasonably defined, and then the prisons should be held to those standards. That standard should not be "whomever creates the meanest environment."

[depakid]

7. What do the Maricopa County crime stats say?

Some fairly simple analysis should tell you whether or not he's had any effect, or whether he's just another petty, insolent sadist.

[saracat]

8. NO.He has no point. He will say anything to get press.

The only thing he might have against private prisons is that he isn't getting a cut!

[Vilis Veritas]

10. Good question...

It seems that I keep hearing stories about this guy, like for years and years. He always has plenty of prisoners. Does it really help, or is he full of shit?

I mean if it were true, wouldn't he ultimately run out of prisoners in his area? I think he has been in office for quite some time...

here is a anti-arpaio site. http://arpaio.com/

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Is this the bastard...

that runs campaigns based on mistreating prisoners?

Last I checked, inciting a riot was illegal.

Stick that son of a bitch in his own prison.

[Selatius]

16. Privately run prisons cannot run without CORPORATE WELFARE.

The guaranteed way of ensuring a revenue stream is to prohibit more and more behaviors and impose harsher and harsher penalties for existing crimes. This involves lobbying politicians with promises of more money for their future campaigns.

Mandatory minimum sentencing laws are heavily favored by private prisons because they ensure more and more people who are not guilty of violent crimes are also placed into prisons. It is, in essence, a form of corporate welfare.

A private corporation exists to enrich the shareholders. The notion of reforming prisoners is contrary to that goal, for if the prison reforms the convicted, they are only hurting their own revenue stream, and all corporations are bound by law to generate a profit for the shareholders, less they face liquidation.

By subjugating the judicial process to a private corporation's profit margins, you are essentially making the same mistake as seen with private health care in the United States. It will be costly; it will ruin many lives, and it will ultimately contribute to the degradation of communities.

[Alexander]

17. And yet he is re-elected here in AZ every time.

What does that say about the people who vote for him?

In Connecticut, where I'm from, we don't have this silly sheriff nonsense.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. I take it Arizona is a much poorer state than Connecticut, yes? -nt

[lonestarnot]

27. They have the districts here so fucked up that repukes are nearly

unchallenged. That is why I am so proud of Give Em Hell Harry Mitchell! Love that man. AZ voters that vote red are uninformed lunkheads. It's embarrassing.

[panader0]

18. Arpaio's idea of incarceration is cruel punishment.

The temperatures in the tents in the summer can go over 120 degrees. Even stripped down to your pink underware, that's too hot. The food sucks, green baloney, rotten emu, etc. I know a kid who had to go because of two DUIs and he was scared and scarred. He's an asshole of the first degree and has no place in the penal system. He would have gotten a hardon to be at Abu Graib. Fuck Arpaio!

[Ayesha]

19. Did he stop drinking and driving after that?

Just curious.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. If he didn't, we always could ramp up the penalty.

After all, there's no such thing as excessive punishment, is there? :sarcasm:

[HEyHEY]

22. I pray people with your attitude are one day

victims of the injustice you so often champion.

[Ayesha]

24. Tell that to

all the people who lose loved ones each year due to selfish persons driving drunk.

I knew somebody who was paralyzed by a drunk driver and it devastated her physically and psychologically. Maybe if that driver had been caught before he hurt somebody and had to eat green baloney for a few weeks or months, of course along with AA and rehab afterwards, she'd be walking today.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

25. OK, so what kind of punishment would be excessive for the crime you mention?

Please say one so that slightly reducing it would make it not excessive.

Edit: you make it look like eating expired food (something inadmissible in and of itself) is the only thing Arpaio makes prisoners go through in Arizona. It's not.

[HEyHEY]

28. I've seen many bodies due to boozed up drivers

there are ways to punish someone for the crime that don't involve being unreasonable and archaic about it

[tjwash]

23. Well, a-hole and Republican are synonymous and redundant...

...but the key word buried in his statement is no one "wants" to come back. I'm sure the stats show the reality of his implication.

In reality he's a double speaking asshole that sucks on the state budget tit just like every other lowlife politician.

So yeah he's wrong. I'd love to cuff that mother fucker up and toss him in one of those "hotels" without his ever present John McCain type escort of guns and choppers and then ask him what he thinks.

But, my personal opinion...privatizing prisons would be as disastrous as privatizing social security.

[htuttle]

26. Prisons were far, far worse in the Middle Ages -- was there no crime then?

In fact, prisons were worse in Victorian times -- when Jack the Ripper was around.

Deterrent alone does not eliminate crime.