Texas officials to study ‘Tent City’
SAN ANTONIO - A handful of Bexar County officials will visit Maricopa County on Thursday to see how a controversial sheriff forces jail inmates to wear pink underwear, eat 15-cent meals, work on chain gangs and live without air conditioning in Korean War-era tents that can heat up past 120 degrees in the summer. Commissioners Lyle Larson and Tommy Adkisson will meet with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-styled “Toughest Sheriff in America,” to see if some of his get-tough measures - particularly the tent jails - could be successfully imported to Bexar County.
So, how long before prisoners in Bexar County are wearing pink and sleeping outside in tents? And how long before the Sheriff there begins believing his own press clippings and becomes a world-class media whore a la Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio?
Then again, could this possibly have anything to do with the impending election and the fact that Adkisson just might benefit from thumping his chest and playing the “I’m tough on crime” card? Hmm….
Arpaio arguably has made an impact here in Maricopa County, but at what cost? Do the people of Maricopa County benefit by enabling the treatment of criminals in the way that Sheriff Arpaio does? Yes, his unconventional (and some might say inhumane) methods have attracted a good deal of attention, but do they do anything more than attract a good deal of media attention?
I’m not smart enough to be able to know whether or not housing criminals in tents in the Arizona heat really has an impact on crime…or whether it will do so in Bexar County, Texas. It IS a great way to make political candidates look as if they’re tough on crime, though…and when it’s all about winning an election, isn’t that really what matters?
Hard core law enforcement people like Sheriff Arpaio and others seem to be a bit short-sighted. Virtually every one of his prisoners is going to someday be released. Very few inmates are doing life sentences in his jail. If we treat people like animals, or brutalize them as - isn't it logical that they are going to give that back to us in spades? The recidivism rates are high enough as it is, without giving inmates another reason to take out their anger on new victims. I swear to God, some of our elected officials are just morons.
Prior to making it to Tent City, one must first be processed through "Madison Street Jail". This daisy-chain of holding cells is crammed to the bursting point, until it is virtually impossible to breathe. After detainees begin to desperately pound on the windows, jailers slowly move the detainees down a room, by ones and twos, where the process starts all over again. "Food" served to inmates has been purposely spoiled, er go; green ham sandwiches and moldy cheese on dusty dry bread.
Numerous detainees have been choked to death by the jailers in this facilty, some by use of brute force, others by means of the restraint chair. If a detainee has the unfortunate occurence of an epileptic seizure, or suffers from acute claustrophobia whilst in these grossly over-crowded rooms, this could (and has been) mistaken for violent or uncooperative behavior, resulting in the beating and/or death of the detainee.
Keep in mind the recurring word here, detainee. These people have only been arrested for, and have not yet been found guilty or innocent of, any crime.
Madison Street Jail is under the direct Supervision of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. It has been designed and is managed to be every bit as nasty as I described, it's no accident. You don't need to go to Gitmo to see prisoners abused. Arizona does a fine job of it.