Joe is not your typical politician. Technically he is a politician because he needs to be voted into his role but he is not the non-committal, always trying to please everyone while never actually doing anything politician. He makes decisions and stands by them.
Some things Joe has done are to charge prisoners for their meals. He cut off porno movies and magazines from the prisons. He only allows “G” rated movies. He took away the weights from the inmates. He has brought back chain gangs for both men and women. He tried taking out TV but was ordered to put it back in the prison because a federal court decision said he had to. So, he put them back but only allows the Disney Channel and the Weather Channel. When asked why he allows the Weather Channel his reasoning was, so the inmates will know what the temperature will be the next day when they are working the chain gang. He cut out coffee because it has no nutritional value.
These changes are excellent in my opinion. We need to stop babying criminals because if we don’t they will never want to leave and always want to come back. We should stop allowing TV, Sony Playstation, porn movies, etc… Some of the above changes prompted some complaints from the prisoners and the Sheriff’s response was, “This isn’t the Ritz/Carlton. If you don’t like it, don’t come back.”
As if these changes weren’t good enough they get even better. Sheriff Joe started tent housing at his prison. Approximately 2,000 prisoners live in a tent outside in the prison yard. During the summer months it can obviously get quite hot in the tent being that they are in Arizona. Reported temperatures last summer were up to 138 degrees in the tent. Prisoners claimed this was inhumane. The Sheriff’s response was, “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!"
Too often politicians are so concerned about not winning enough votes they do not ever commit to an answer that will upset anyone. A perfect example is the fact that a federal court made the decision that TV’s need to be allowed in the prisons. Maybe the prisons should be lined with books to help the prisoners learn new skills and become more educated. By doing this they would have a better chance to succeed outside the prison walls. There is a good chance there is a large amount of people in the prisons across this country that can’t read and write. But, at least they are entitled to TV, that ought to make things better.
We need more politicians like Joe Arpaio. We need more people that are concerned about doing the right thing and spend their time working on doing those things rather than slinging mud against the other side. A perfect example is the recent issue involving the high gas prices. President Bush has come up with a plan, and a bad plan in my opinion, to resolve the gas price “crisis”. The Democrats are bad mouthing his plan instead of getting together to come up with a good plan.
Anyone that has read some of my other articles knows my stance on politics. I am not a Democrat or a Republican. I think they both stink for the country. I think they have manipulated the system so badly that it will be the downfall of our country at some point in the future. It may not be in our lifetime but they will be the reason this country fails. They spend recklessly, they make laws that favor themselves and the corporations that fund their campaigns, and they very rarely do the right thing for their voters.
As a parting word I ask that anyone that is reading this article do me a favor, please keep an eye out for more people like Joe Arpaio and vote them into office. They will repair all that is wrong with our country right now.
