"What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."
- Captain, Road Prison 36 (Strother Martin) from Cool Hand Luke

"Do not speak to me of rules. This is war! This is not a game of cricket!"
- Colonel Saito from Bridge Over The River Quai

"You mean, you intend to uphold the letter of the law, no matter what it costs?"
"Without law, Commander, there is no civilization."
"That's just my point. Here, there is no civilization."
"Then we have the opportunity to introduce it."
- Major Shears (William Holden) to Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) in Bridge Over The River Quai

"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons."
- Fyodor Dostoevsky

"We can teach these barbarians a lesson in Western methods and efficiency that will put them to shame. We'll show them what the British soldier is capable of doing."
- Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) in Bridge Over The River Quai

June 26th, 2004

I got this in the mail today. It outraged me so much that I felt it could not go ignored or unpunished. So, therefore, I'm printing the letter with my commentary at the bottom.

I won't reveal who sent this to me as I'm certain it was born out of complete and utter ignorance born of the recent "caution be damned" gung ho attitude that has swept this nation. I say it is no excuse for not being civilized. However, in addition to this publishing, I have written back to him and expressed bluntly why I believe he is in extreme error in his opinion.

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 and 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 isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."

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.

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."

You have to love this guy!!

 

My Comment:

I draw the line between "tough guy" and jack ass.

Let me ask you this. What happens when prisoners are sick or injured while in his "care"? What if they have no money at all? Does that mean they starve because they lack the money of their 40 cent meal? Plus, who is pocketing the cash? The last I heard prisons were run by the state and are accountable to the law. I'd like to see this sheriff a prisoner in his own jail house.

Incidentally, coffee has caffine which is a natural antihistamine. If you have a caffine addiction (which many of us have), caffine withdrawral is painful. Just because someone is in prison does not mean they should be made uncomfortable. Nor does it mean that prisoners should not have the right to form their own ideas of opinions. Bend to his will of thinking or else.

Plus, what makes him think that his views are the right views? What ever happened to the concept of rehabilitation? Is it also his view not to keep his inmates healthy? He's taken away weights. Wouldn't it be more constructive to make certain mind and body are healed? Hey, take away the cable but let them have something to pass the time, like books. The next thing you'll know, he'll have them watch Christian TV. Sorry, but THAT is torture. They may be getting right views but they are EXTREME RIGHT VIEWS. This isn't law and order, this is sadism at its finest.

I can only imagine how he treats his kids.

"Sorry, son, you didn't do your homework so now you must stay in the closet for an hour."

Comparing the prisoners to the soldiers in Iraq is just wrong and stupid. The soldiers in Iraq are enlisted men. No one has been drafted... yet. I'm certain that when they enlisted they did so for either A) a better life or B) a chance to get the 9-11 terrorists. They did not anticipate this needless self serving occupation of a sovereign country that never attacked the US (not only that but Saddam Hussein's dictatorship never got along with the al Qaida. It represented exactly what he didn't want). There were no weapons of mass destruction and we are there for NO REASON other than to help Dubya make more money on his war profiteering.

I feel for the soldiers, I really do. But assholes like this sheriff stand completely far and away from what this country is all about. While he's at it why not put them in stocks and have the villagers throw tomatoes at them? Why not go all the way with the humiliation? Instead of pink, why not have them wear women's evening wear? How about with make up as well?

What kind of person would think this is a good idea? Are we that far away from decent humanity, where "chain gang" behavior is not only acceptable but also applauded? Have we forgotten history so much that even a movie produced within the last 60 years (I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932)) is dismissed as mere fiction (which it was not)?

It is frightening that we are not only taking examples from Cool Hand Luke for proper civilized treatment of prisoners and ignoring lessons from movies like Bridge Over The River Quai (Please forgive the celluloid references instead of text. It's what I know best). Has the inhumanity of trailer trash like Lynndie England and company become so accepted that not only do we have to embarrass ourselves in the international community but domestically as well?

More importantly, what does he hope to accomplish by this? What happens when one of these prisoners FINALLY gets out? What will happen without any kind of work program or psychological therapy to mend a prisoner's evil ways? The first thing that would probably happen is that he'd drive out of Arizona. The second thing that would is take his aggression on some poor innocent. And lastly, if he is caught, a police man will get shot because he won't be taken alive.

Is this right? Is this the mark of a civilized society such as ours. I don't think so. I actually know a man who paid his debt to society and has made a complete turnaround in his life. He got educated in prison and now has his own business. He is probably doing better than I. He has mended his ways and learned his lesson. This is the civilized way of doing things.

Sheriff "Tough Guy" has a Byzantine way of doing things. What will he do when things don't go his way? Cut off an inmate's limbs? Rectally screw a prisoner? Withhold even more food? Have Lynndie England come over and check for hard ons? I really think this is something that Senator John McCain should look into - after all, it IS his state. I hope treating these prisoners better is part of his Republican platform. He does cross lines so it might.

Contrary to "Black Jack" Pershing's method of "sending a message", inhumane treatment of prisoners home or abroad is not a good idea and I disagree with whatever mutantly stupid retard that came up with e-mailing a distribution list that it is one.