Chavs and misfits…
The country’s becoming overrun with the scrawny buggers. The ‘Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner’ thread raised the subject of National Service and chain gangs…
Artist wrote:…….The introduction of chain gangs might work mind! The US of A have introduced it back into use and it seems to work with the buggers over there.
No chance of ever seeing them over here unfortunately, (the prison ships only lasted a few years because the screws didn’t like working in them....need to convince them they'll get more satisfaction from chain-gang duties...
)….but just look what we’re missing out on! A great opportunity to break big rocks into little rocks is being missed…
What if prisons became just bit more severe? A bit more of deterrent to repeat offenders? A bit less of the Hi-Di-Hi holiday camp feel we on the outside perceive them as… A bit more of a US flavour to these ‘correctional institutions’. The sort of places that would put the fear of God into these low-life yoofs who have an annoying habit of grinning away in Court when they get sent down for a few weeks of enforced TV watching and drug taking inside an HMP.
For those not familiar with Joe Arpaio, he’s the Sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona. In 1992 he signed a document stating he would only serve one term as Sheriff………. He is now in his fourth term
Here are some of the reasons why:
Arpaio believes that inmates should be treated as harshly as legally possible to emphasise the punishment aspect resulting from crime.
When Arpaio took office, inmates were routinely being released early due to overcrowding. He believed that "courts, not head count" should determine when an inmate is released, and that no officer should be deterred from making an arrest for fear that the inmate would be released due to jail overcrowding.
So he got some used tents from the military and set up the Tent City Jail in the car park adjacent to one of the jail facilities. He also added a pink neon "Vacancy" sign to the outside of Tent City to make it clear to future inmates that they should not expect early release upon overcrowding, just more tents instead. This saved Arizona from spending tens of millions of dollars on another expensive prison complex.
(eyup.... Is that IRON MIKE being shown around his new crib??)He limited meals to twice daily and served inmates surplus food, mainly outdated and oxidized green bologna and later even removed salt and pepper from the jail at a taxpayer savings of $20,000 per year. His jail meals cost 20 cents a serving and he charges the inmates for them.
He banned smoking and pornographic magazines in the jails, and took away their weightlifting equipment and cut off all but "G" movies. He says:
"They're in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave."
He started chain gangs to use the inmates to do free work on county and city projects and save taxpayer's money. Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination. He has also instituted the world's first all-juvenile chain gang
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 allowed the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel, he replied: "So these morons will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs."
He allowed an in-house radio station to broadcast, but it only plays classical music, opera, Frank Sinatra hits, obscenity-free patriotic music, and educational programming.
He cut off coffee because it has zero nutritional value and is therefore a waste of taxpayer money. When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."
He started mandatory two-week English classes for non-English-speaking inmates at his jails. At the end of the two-week course, inmates are required to take a test to see how well they have learned about American government, the words to God Bless America, and the communication of health and safety needs. "These inmates happen to be incarcerated in the United States of America and in Maricopa County where I run the jails. We speak English here, not foreign languages."
One of his most noted changes was the introduction of pink underwear. Arpaio noted that the traditional white t-shirts and boxers, labelled with Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, were being smuggled out of the jails and sold on the streets. So he had the underwear dyed bright pink.
Believing that inmates should be easily identifiable should they escape, Arpaio re-instituted the traditional black-and-white inmate uniforms, which even with the advent of everything else now being pink has not changed.
With temperatures in Phoenix often reaching 50 degrees the prisoners are occasionally given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. He told all the inmates who were complaining of the heat in the tents: "It's between 120 to 130 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to walk all day in the sun, wearing full battle gear and get shot at, and they have not committed any crimes……..so shut your damned mouths!"
Joe Arpaio is not one bit sympathetic. "Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for parole, only to go out and commit more crimes so they can come back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves."
Way to go, Sheriff!
Hasn’t made a great impact on the re-offending rate figures…but who cares!
