Today I read the following post by Terri Noskov on Facebook:
WE NEED THIS GUY IN OUR PRISON SYSTEMS
You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.............
SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!
Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!
Maricopa County was spending approx.$18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.
The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.
The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him.. Cost us $78.
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. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals..
I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.
He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later.... We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.
Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote. Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and
vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the
border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.
TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO
HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF
AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:
Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ' Tent City Jail':
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 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 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.'
More On The Arizona Sheriff:
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 year. '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 Mouths!'
Way To Go, Sheriff!
Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.
Obviously, our system of justice is different. Our prison system is different. However, wouldn't it be amazing to have the same kind of practical, levelheadedness when it comes to the running of our cities?
Can you imagine, in Cape Town, if we could use chain gangs to create infrastructure for townships? Our prisons are overflowing, yet sitting in them is the man (and woman) power to literally dig and lay thousands of trenches for all the water & sewage pipes, and electrical cabling, needed to provide flush toilets for all the townships. (Yes, we would need to rehouse many people to be able to put this infrastructure in place, and getting that planning permission to create new suburbs, and getting people to agree to move, is difficult.)
Imagine if we used prisoners to grow and harvest their own food. Not only would they be learning valuable skills, but they would be saving taxpayers oodles of money.
Imagine if we used prisoners to care for all the stray pets?
Not only does work give a person a sense of self-worth, which is VITAL, but working the soil, working with animals, it does something to a person. There is something to be said for working with living things that can't talk back to you. Research shows that the elderly and the young benefit from living with pets. Surely working with pets will also be beneficial to the souls of prisoners? And farming... I know that not everyone is stimulated by working in the garden, or planting things, but working the soil brings peace and restores the soul. There is some mystical connection between us and the earth - we are all, after all, created things.
What if we trained prison gangs to remove alien vegetation and plant fynbos - as part of the Working on Water, or Working on Wetlands projects? Imagine the amount of water that we could save! (Imagine the money we could save too, not having to employ people to do this.)
What about sorting rubbish? If we used prisoners to sort rubbish into recyclable materials, not only would we be saving the earth, but they could then use the very recyclable materials they sorted to generate income. There is already an arts programme in several prisons, teaching prisoners how to be artists. They could use the recyclable materials in their art work. Or they could make useful items and sell those. (Or, worst case, they could simply send the stuff to the city's recycling plants.)
What if we used our prisoners to build better prisons? I would imagine that on the site of current prisons there is space to put up additional buildings.
Or what about getting them to build houses for those on the city's waiting list for RDP houses?
Or what about getting them to cook food for the homeless?
Or what about getting them to make park benches and clean up parks?
Or what about teaching them how to sew and knit, and getting them to make blankets and clothing for those who are affected by the flooding on the Cape Flats every year, and prepare disaster relief packages in advance?
And that's just thinking about things to do here in this city. I don't know what needs other cities might have, but I'm sure there's a lot prisoners could be doing, to give back to the city that is paying for their upkeep, to give back to the communities they have robbed, threatened, destroyed, killed members of...
The devil makes work for idle hands. By teaching our prisoners skills, by giving them work, by helping them to be useful we give them a sense of self-worth, a vision for the future, hope for what might happen when they have served their time. In the same way that we need programmes for our teens, to keep them off the streets and off drugs, we need programmes in our prisons to help those who seem beyond help.
Or am I just being a hopeless romantic? If it can be done by one sheriff in the USA, then why can't it happen here in Cape Town?
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