Arizona sheriff has the right idea
I read in the Daily Herald the Illinois budget is unbalanced and will require cuts in spending to make up the difference. Among plans to reduce spending is an early release of prisoners. On the same day I read a woman on probation for a 2007 DUI rammed into a home through a garage and into the kitchen, an incident that could have killed the woman in the home. On the next page I read a man was charged with his seventh DUI. Yes, his seventh! He had been sentenced to six years in prison on a DUI in 2007 but released on parole. This is only 2009! Yes, he only served two years and had four years left to serve on his sentence. This man should never have been out of prison, let alone on the streets again ready to kill someone.
Our courts are already doing early release of rape, robbery and assault criminals saying they have to because the prisons are full. Our legislators say we have to because of the cost. Well I ask you, have any of you heard of Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Marciopa County, Ariz.?
Joe believes that inmates shouldn't live on taxpayer money and enjoy things that many taxpayers can't even afford, but Joe doesn't let them out early, nor should we. In the early 1990s Joe started a highly successful "tent city jail" in the desert. Joe cut costs of keeping inmates.
Gathered from various sources, here are some of the things Joe has done.
He stopped inmates from smoking, stopped them from reading porno magazines. He also did away with all but "G" rated movies in jail. He took away cable TV. There is a federal court order that requires cable TV in jails and had to restore it, but he limits inmates to viewing only the Disney and weather channels. When asked why the weather channel, he said so they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on his chain gang. He said he also started chain gangs for women as well so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination. Chain gangs are productive working on county and city projects saving millions in labor costs.
Complaining one day about the tents when the temperature went over 100, one of the inmates said " it feels like a furnace in here." Joe told all of the inmates that it was 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are in full uniform living in tents, and they didn't even commit any crimes so shut your mouths.
Joe runs a pretty cheap, but quite adequate operation including medical and dental care. Joe has meals down to less than 20 cents a serving and charges them for it. He doesn't even serve coffee because it doesn't have any nutritional value. When the inmates complained about that, he told them they weren't at the Ritz and if they didn't like it not to come back. Well a lot of them don't.
Why? Not because they don't get coffee, but rather, Joe started an anti-drug program and what he calls "Hard Knocks High," the only accredited high school in an American jail. This combination has resulted in a very high percentage of inmates leaving jail without addiction and few returning to jail.
Maybe Illinois's climate doesn't allow prison tents, but maybe our legislators could think outside the box for a change and contract with Joe to take our inmates. Joe has an "unprecedented" four-year term because "... he knows what the public wants." The hell with the ACLU on this issue! We don't need an early release, we need Joe!
Leo A. Dietrich
Lake Villa