Slave labor used to run animal shelters. Nice.

I'd imagine that the prisoners would form an attachment to the animals and start to care about them.

Suddenly, people who never cared about anything or anyone have a stake in this world--maybe something that will even anchor them and change their perspective.

And he saved the county $15 million in the process. No whining that he needed to have more money thrown down a hole...

Is this a joke? The inmates volunteer...yes?

"If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back."

You can't put it much better than that.
Jim

+ 1

How do you spend $18m on stray animals?

You make it a government entity?

Great idea! I just hope the prisoners are screened and these are non-violent criminals. There's unfortunately the potential for serious abuse or animal torture by some seriously pathologically disturbed nutcase, but for 99% of the inmates, this is probably a great, positive thing - as someone said.

If I was in prison, I'd most likely bust my ass to be able to work with the animals like he has set up.

My understanding is that prisoners don't have to do anything for him. They can sit in the jail and watch the weather channel all day long if they want to.

And look at the bright side, he seems like he is a guy that covers his ass, so I'm pretty sure he has a real vet on hand who overseas all, and any issues of the animals. and the prisoners are learning a skill. A friend of mine who works at a animal rescue makes a fair wage.

While much that Joe does is good, he himself is a criminal and needs to be removed from office IMHO.

He has so much underhanded dealings going on that its crazy. Its been proven that he has accepted funds from friends/family of people who are going to jail. They are then put in an air conditioned facility instead of "tent city" where its up to 120 degrees in the summer.

Lately he was caught spending millions of bux on "facial recognition software" for frigging Honduras. What does Honduras have to do with Maricopa County Arizona (aka the Phoenix area) one might ask? Well, us tax payers in Phoenix are asking and Joe is not telling, saying that we need to "just trust me." Part of the funds used here are "RICO funds," monies that were siezed in police raids but part of it are paid for by us local citizens, aka taxpayers.

Its just come out that one of the deputy's based in Honduras (yes, he now has LE staff in Honduras, a very nice vacation spot) is a partner in the facial recognition company and stands to make millions on this program. Conflict of interest one might say... but again Joe is refusing to talk about it.

Oh yea, should I mention that Joe locked up several newspaper editors recently when they published something that he did not like? The Phoenix PD released them the next day and state atty admonished Joe for doing this but its too late. Lawsuits are filed and he will lose like he usually does. In other words another stupid blunder by Joe will cost us tax payers more in legal fees and settlements.

He has been shunned by his local political party as he is a loose cannon. He has wonderful operations like his prostitution sting a couple of years ago. His deputies went after the "working girls" in the area around Christmas time, but instead of following the rules (and law) the deputies actually had sex with the girls, THEN busted them. 60 of the 70 cases were thrown out of court.

On and on many of us will be very happy when Joe retires and we get a professional lawman as Sheriff of Maricopa county.

GAFB.

Joe is 100% correct on this and he knows what he's talking about.

"The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day."

By any definition, people being coerced into working for free is slavery. If the Soviet Union was exposed doing this (they did) this board would have been all over it.

Don't use these phrases when talking about jail, "bust my ass, cover his ass and I'm so pretty." They can get you in trouble.:D

I don't know about Joe specifically, but a local sheriff around here was cut from the same mold. Pink jail cells, Para-military uniforms, "tough on crime", TV shows, etc. the whole nine yards (he fancied himself as another Joe A.) Problem is that in spite of his "public persona", he's now a convicted felon, and some of his ex-deputies are convicted of selling drugs. It was common knowledge for years that his dept. was corrupt, but he kept getting elected based upon the "public perception". Sometimes all is not as it seems....

"G" movies only. I can imagine the prisoners in the yard - all humming "under the sea" from The Little Mermaid..

....Under the sea
Under the sea
Nobody beat us
Fry us and eat us
In fricassee
We what the land folks loves to cook
Under the sea we off the hook
We got no troubles
Life is the bubbles
Under the sea
Under the sea
Since life is sweet here
We got the beat here
Naturally
Even the sturgeon an' the ray
They get the urge 'n' start to play
We got the spirit
You got to hear it
Under the sea.....

I must be missing something here. No way I would ever call this slave labor or cruel punishment or whatever. The inmates are probably grateful.

Joe makes for good sound clips but the reality is not quite so good.

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dfC8S70Ugq8&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dfC8S70Ugq8&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

Hitler had camps like these...

Speer saved countless millions of Marks with this kind of labor too...but ...we don't remember that now do we?

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uXvYPfuX2AY&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uXvYPfuX2AY&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

The funny thing is that I agree with all of the above. Dammit, these people are criminals and do not need 200 cable channels on the television. Our guys and gals fighting overseas do not have air conditioning, why should they?

On and on we have gotten used to mollycoddling prisoners. The above poster is more than correct. I have a very good friend who spent 30 days in "tent city" and he tells me really difficult stories about his time there. Grown men fighting over scraps of moldy food and so on, things that are not correct. I agree with not feeding them steak but they deserve "3 squares and a cot" but thats it. Make it uncomfortable in there so that they think twice the next time they think about doing something stupid.

We can have both an honest Sheriff and good system behind him. Just need to find the right person, then people to back him up.

huh? Volunteer labor......me doubts it.

Using prisoners to accomplish work sounds good if you don't think about it very long. In my state, there is a Board that oversees these decisions. Some programs make more sense than others. Ideally, these folks "graduate" with a marketable skill.

In this animal shelter story, a number of people lost their jobs. Should the population of inmates in a prison have lower unemployment rates than folks who have not committed crimes and are looking for work? Want a job? Rob a liquor store. And then there is the problem of having some guy, in this case Joe Arpaio, pimping free labor to whoever pads his coffers best?

maybe the prisoners have a better UNION rep.

Rika

Sounds like this boy from Florida has some first-hand experience...

I've heard Sheriff Joe's chain gangs are a big hit, really. It's actually a privilege to get on one since the prisoners get outside the perimeter for a while. Nothing wrong at all with making prisoners repay a debt to society. It's standard in every state to pay a tiny fraction of minimum wage for prison labor. Why not? They're already getting free room and board.

When I was in high school, making $3.35 an hour, living with parents, no car, no bills, I had more money than I knew what to do with. Seems $.28 an hour is just about enough to cover cigarettes for the week. What else can they buy?

Exactly. I don't recall reading that this was a mandatory program. If an inmate prefers to sit in his 125-degree tent in the middle of July, I'm sure he's welcome to do so.

Anything that can prevent recidivism is a good idea, IMHO. It's responsible for a huge portion of the burden on the prison system. Not to mention the fact that there are tens of thousands of animals out there who need help/care/compassion.

I don't see any losers in this one as long as a watchful eye is kept on it to prevent abuse or inmates helping themselves to medical supplies, etc. Great idea overall. A few implementation hurdles, but nice to see.

Nobody ever seemed to b*tch when inmates were used to make license plates, right? This allows them to get "better" job skills and (as has been said) shows them that they can make a positive difference in the world if they want to.

If you want to get into a discussion about "slave labor" (that's not voluntary), we can always start talking about the Chinese. . .

What an awesome guy. A rarity in this day and age to take charge and not "overthink" every solution.

Originally Posted by URY914
How do you spend $18m on stray animals?

You want Rammstein's political belief system? Read above!

Seriously, I saw one of those "Inside the Prison" shows about a prison where the warden let them have cats. Having an animal to care for built up parts of these convicts' hearts and emotions that had never existed before. Apparently, it kept violence down on the inside as well, and as a bonus it gave stray cats who would have been euthanized a second chance.

If I were a convict, I would be first in line to go work in an animal shelter. Who wants to sit in a cell all day?

Again, the reason you're not seeing a potential problem here is that you're not looking deep enough. I'm in a hurry so I won't be able to do this justice but I've seen this "inmate labor" thing many times. The guy in charge of the program winds up with a very valuable service to pimp. Graft happens. The inmates find prison even more fun than before, which does not help rescitivism. And when the inmates start taking on things like asbestos abatement, as they did here in my state, an association of asbestos abatement contractors will point out that it is their work that is being undercut. Some of them will go out of business. Their labor unions will be their partners in this public dispute. Inmate Labor looks cute if you only see the surface. Gotta go.

DO ARIZONA..............................and DO TIME! i cannot comment here. i played football with dave hendershott(#2) and larry black (#3) at brophy prep.

all i can say.............is this novembers election will be a ******* HOOT TO WATCH!

i can promise you that the rank and file cops that have aligned themselves with joe dave and larry if joe doesnt get elected, will be summarily FIRED by whomever gets elected. ie. a hell of alot of job openings!!!!!

Yes, Supe, but shouldn't adequate government regulation cure all of that? ;)

Animal control is not a consumer driven industry, it's a nuisance industry. I'm not too worried about public employees having to find other positions.

We have the state Corrections Center for Women not far from us. They have the "Prison Pet Partnership Program", which is simply a boarding house for dogs. Very popular- You need to get a reservation pretty far in advance.

We used it once when we went on a vacation, and when we returned, our dog was not even excited to see us! She had never been treated as nice, or recieved as much attention as what the inmates heaped on her.

I'm all for this program. Good for the inmates, good for the budget.

Totally agree with you on this one. Inmate labor has been around for decades, and IMHO, should be around for many more to come.

I don't recall seeing or hearing anyone b!tching about the folks in their orange jumpsuits picking up the trash alongside the freeways, either! Sure, it's not teaching them a skill, but it's definitely providing a valuable service to the communities.

Randy

those people did not do anything illegal, and that is sort of an insulting comparison, nicely done

Superman, why is it always about the impact on the labor unions with you?

Sorry, that was a rhetorical question I could not resist including.

Don't know about Sheriff Joe personally, but I like everything in the article...but think he is still a little too easy on the criminals.

You know to some degree, I agree wholeheartedly. The problem that I've seen however (at least in the case of the local sheriff that I referred to earlier), is that "power" seems to currupt some departments like this and before you know it, they are totally out of control.

you are right...but alot were started as criminal camps for tose who broke laws...we only remember history we want to remember...not always how it happened and that is how it started in Germany, as camps for criminals and people who broke laws(even if WE don't agree, they had LAWS against things such as interreligious marriage, buying goods from jewish stores etc)

I am not by any means condoning it, but it is a sad path that we are following now.
We as a nation have statrted down the same path as Germany in the early 30's...and people are too blind to see it
compare the patriot act to the richstag decree...
compare the Gestapo to our own various Gubmit agencies that have powqers to detain and hold...have secret trials....it isn't much different

I happen to work with a man who fled germany in 1935 as a young man only to go back to fight them in the US army. He says it is a very similar state we are in...he shakes his head and says he is too old to do anything this time...and that it will happen again all too soon
sad...very sad