Joe Arpaio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph M. Arpaio (born June 14, 1932 in Springfield, Massachusetts) is a law enforcement officer who is notable as the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. He has been called "America's toughest sheriff." He has a large number of vocal supporters for his toughness on crime and criminals, but many civil libertarians denounce him as a bully and a tyrant for his policies.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Joe Arpaio was the child of immigrants from Naples, Italy. His mother died during childbirth; his father had little interest in raising young Joe, whose upbringing was left to whatever family members were willing to take him in. As a result of his father’s abandonment, Arpaio spent his childhood being shuffled back and forth between different families.
Arpaio enlisted in the United States Army and served from 1950-1953. According to an April, 2001 article in Harper's magazine, Arpaio has stated that he is a veteran who served at the time of the Korean War.
Following his discharge, he moved to Washington, D.C. and then to Las Vegas, Nevada, serving on the police force of both cities. He married Ava Arpaio in 1956. Some time afterward, Arpaio obtained a job as a Special Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, working there for more than two decades. During that time, he was stationed in both Turkey and Mexico and advanced to the position of head of the DEA's Arizona branch, where he served for four years before retiring.
[edit] "America's toughest sheriff"
Joe Arpaio referred to himself as "America's toughest sheriff" in his 1996 book, America's Toughest Sheriff: How We Can Win the War Against Crime.
Upon his initial election as sheriff of Maricopa County in 1992, Arpaio immediately began instituting changes at county jails.
He began to serve inmates surplus food, reducing meal costs to 90 cents per day [1]. He has banned coffee (to save money and to reduce 'coffee attacks' on guards), smoking, and porno magazines. He has removed the weightlifting equipment and cut off all but G-rated movies. The cable TV system, which is mandated by court order, has but a few stations Arpaio deems to be "educational", those being Animal Planet, ESPN2, The Weather Channel, and Food Network.
Arpaio reinstituted chain gangs, and instituted (according to his bio, see below) the world's first female chain gang.
Inmates are issued pink underwear as part of their uniforms and all guards use pink handcuffs.
He has also set up the Tent City as a modification of the Maricopa County Jail. As it becomes crowded, more tents are set up. As temperatures climbed well past 100 during the summer of 2003, Arpaio said to complaining 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!"[2]
Arpaio has instituted a program for inmates to study while in jail and to try to recover from drug abuse. This program is named Hard Knocks High, which is the only approved high school program in any American jail. Another jail program, called ALPHA, is aimed solely at getting inmates away from drug abuse. Community projects include bicycle registration, block watch, child identification and fingerprinting, Operation Identification for marking valuables, Operation Notification which identifies business owners during times of emergency, Project Lifeline which provides free cellular phones to domestic violence victims, S.T.A.R.S. (Sheriff’s Teaching Abuse Resistance to Students), and an annual summer camp for kids near Payson.
Recently, Arpaio has started mandatory 2-week English classes for non-English-speaking inmates at his jails. At the end of the 2-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.", Arpaio said in a statement. Classes last 2 hours a day. The curriculum comprises of the three branches of government, how a bill becomes law, state government, law enforcement and court services, and jailhouse "situational" terminology. Most students are planned to be native-Spanish speakers. Of the 10,000 prisoners in Maricopa County jails, about 3,000 are Hispanic, including approximately 1,000 illegal immigrants. [citation needed]
One of the most successful programs maintained by Sheriff Arpaio is the all-volunteer Posse program. The earliest organized Posse in Maricopa County was formed over 50 years ago. Arpaio expanded the program through heavy recruiting, and got the volunteers involved in many areas of the sheriff's office. Search and rescue, emergency communications, prisoner transport, traffic control, backup for sworn deputies, and office administrative duties are some areas in which the posse has provided free assistance. Holiday Mall Patrol deters crime during the holiday shopping season and provides motorist assistance and security for shoppers. Periodic deadbeat parent details target men and women with outstanding warrants for failure to pay child support. Arpaio has also included on the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office website an online "deck of cards" featuring pictures of deadbeat parents, amounts owed and last known whereabouts.
He attends some of the Phoenix police's community activities personally, going as far as making free autograph show appearances several times a year. In 2001, he oversaw security at the former Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) for the World Series that pitted the Arizona Diamondbacks (the eventual champions) against the New York Yankees.
In the fall of 2006, Arpaio could be seen in political advertisements for Proposition 204, which in effect limits animal cruelty in farming.
Arpaio is currently serving his fourth term in office, having won reelection in 1996, 2000, and 2004.
[edit] Controversy and criticism
Some feel that Sheriff Arpaio's actions are based less on a desire to serve the public and to lower crime, but on demagoguery and grandstanding that hurt the public welfare. Amnesty International issued a report critical of the treatment of inmates in Maricopa County facilities [3].
Criticism has also resulted due to lawsuits filed against the sheriff’s office by family members of inmates killed in jail custody and in highspeed pursuits involving deputies. The lawsuits have cost Maricopa County more than $13.7 million in settlement claims.
One of his most criticized decisions was the construction of a tent city that houses both men and women. Some inmates in the facility claimed that they were mistreated and that forcing prisoners to spend their time outside during an Arizona summer, where the temperature can reach nearly 120F is cruel and unnecessary. In an effort to institute equality between the men and women prison sentences, he created an all-female chain gang.
[edit] The Scott Norberg case
One major controversy includes the 1996 death of inmate Scott Norberg while he was in custody. Norberg was arrested for chasing two young girls in Mesa, Arizona. Reportedly high on methamphetamines, Norberg was accused of attacking the jail detention officers who were trying to restrain him. In the subsequent struggle and restraint, he died. According to an investigation by Amnesty International, Norberg was already handcuffed and face down when officers dragged him from his cell and placed him in a restraint chair with a towel covering his face. His death, according to the Maricopa County medical examiner, was due to "positional asphyxia". County detention officers were acquitted of wrongdoing. [4]
Norberg’s parents filed a lawsuit against Joe Arpaio and his office. The lawsuit was settled for $8.25 million (USD). Arpaio has consistently defended his officers' actions and the jail procedures and neither the Justice Department nor the FBI, which investigated the allegations, filed charges. [5]
[edit] The Brian Crenshaw case
Brian Crenshaw was a blind inmate allegedly beaten into a coma by guards working under Arpaio. Crenshaw suffered injuries that included a perforated intestine and a broken neck. He later died at a local hospital. When asked about the incident, Arpaio insisted, "The man fell off a bunk." [6]
[edit] The Fountain Hills prank calls case
During April, 2004, Arpaio became involved in more controversy when he accused the West Bridgewater, Massachusetts Police Department of being unprofessional over their handling of surveillance tapes from an AT&T store that showed a suspect making prank calls to several restaurants. The calls instructed restaurant managers to strip-search female customers — minors included. Several managers were arrested as a result. Arpaio believed that the suspect in the tapes from West Bridgewater might be connected to a similar case in Fountain Hills, Arizona. In response to Arpaio's comments, West Bridgewater Sheriff Raymund S. Rogers was quoted as saying "I think he's mad that our detectives just happen to be better than his detectives". [7]
[edit] James Saville
James Saville was arrested in 1999 for attempting to murder Joe Arpaio. A jury decided that officers from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department had entrapped Saville and found him not guilty [8].
[edit] Torture
Arpaio has been accused of allowing the torture of inmates at his jails in a documentary from Channel 4 in Britain Channel 4.
[edit] Illegal immigrants
In 2005, Arizona passed a law making it a felony, punishable by up to 2 years in jail, to smuggle someone across the border. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has issued a legal opinion that those being smuggled can be considered co-conspirators to the smuggling and thusly can be charged under the same law. Under this opinion, Arpaio has instructed his deputies and members of his civilian posse to round up and arrest suspected illegal immigrants. Arpaio said to Fox News, "My message is clear: If you come here and I catch you, you're going straight to jail. [...] I'm not going to turn these people over to federal authorities so they can have a free ride back to Mexico. I'll give them a free ride to my jail." [9] To date, Arpaio has arrested at least 263 people under this program. [10]
The county attorney's legal opinion is being challenged in court. Many critics, including two of the co-authors of the Arizona anti-smuggling law, claim that Thomas and Arpaio are misusing the statute, which was meant only for human smugglers and not for migrants who are being smuggled. [11] Judge Thomas O'Toole ruled in June, 2006 that the sheriff's interpretation is correct, and the migrants can be tried as co-conspirators. However, he later ordered that several migrants be released from custody due to lack of evidence against them. Several other migrants have plead guilty and received probation and deportation to Mexico. So far, none of the conspiracy cases have been tried by a jury. [12]
[edit] Prostitution sting
Sheriff Arpaio has been criticized for allowing his deputies and posse members to engage in sex acts during an undercover prostitution "sting". In November, 2003, Sheriff's deputies arrested over 70 people for prostitution and solicitation. The officers arrested alleged prostitutes and their customers in more than 30 homes and 10 massage parlors in the Phoenix area. Records indicated that several of the officers disrobed, fondled the breasts and genitals of the alleged prostitutes, and allowed their penises to be touched during the operation. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office stated that the Sheriff's office had gone too far in allowing this behavior, and 60 of the cases were thrown out. Several of the male customers in the case were prosecuted, however. [13]
[edit] Books
- Joe Arpaio and Len Sherman, America's Toughest Sheriff: How We Can Win the War Against Crime, (1996). Summit Publishing Group, ISBN 1-56530-202-8
