[identity profile] ed-dirt.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 08:35 am (UTC)(link)
thank fuck!

and thank you for posting the first good thing I've read in the past 24 hours.

[identity profile] kierthos.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 09:36 am (UTC)(link)
You're welcome. And yeah, we need more good news lately.

[identity profile] ed-dirt.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
I guarantee you every inmate in the Arizon State Prison system breathed an even bigger sigh of relief. A lotta guys in the State Pen in AZ came through Sheriff Joe's jail, and they are fully aware of how he mistreats prisoners in direct violation of Federal Law (but hey, if you're right wing you get to decide which laws you obey!).

It's against Federal Law to house prisoners in temporary housing (tents in 110 degree heat, for example) for longer then a few weeks, and Joe Arpaio has been doing it for years. The Feds fine him for it, but he's discovered that it's cheaper to break Federal Law and pay the fines than it is for him to pony up the money for new jail structure.

And since he's got the taxpayers convinced that he's saving them money by not "pampering" the inmates, they're all behind ol' tough-talking-Joe on this. Never mind that he's costing the county hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect his sorry ass from all of the people he says want to kill him, and who know how much it has cost to fight off all of the lawsuits he's been hit with.

A British guy went through the AZ State Penitentiary system right about the time I was finishing my little stretch, and he wrote a blog (by remote).

He started out in the Maricopa County Jail system. (http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2009/12/welcome-guardian-readers-i-started-jons.html)

[identity profile] kierthos.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Arpaio has cost Maricopa County (and by extension, Arizona) millions of dollars in fines, lawsuit judgments and so forth, and I can only imagine that if the immigration law actually goes into effect in July, Arizona will be on the hook for many millions more after legal citizens get harassed on a "Sheriff Joe" level all across the state.

[identity profile] cuddlycthulhu.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Read about the kid being made a super hero for the day by Make-A-Wish in an event that took hours and over four hundred volunteers?

[identity profile] ed-dirt.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 06:45 pm (UTC)(link)
no, actually, and I mean no offense but that story just made me wanna puke.

[identity profile] cuddlycthulhu.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Crooks and Liars had some interesting reasons why, in that he'd have to step down from sheriff to do it and that the very rabid (and not a fan of Sheriff Joe) AG might take some steps to look into the department without Arpaio's interference.

[identity profile] kierthos.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I figure he's going to stay Sheriff until criminal charges stick against him.

[identity profile] ed-dirt.livejournal.com 2010-05-04 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
that should only take about another 6 months or so.

[identity profile] kierthos.livejournal.com 2010-05-05 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
We can only hope. Of course, if it does happen, it will be a "liberal plot".