Originally Posted by topjimmy
Some of you sound like you are either ex-inmates, family members of inmates, or spending too much time reading the New Times.
The New Times is like any other media outlet, they never have their facts straight. If you have any experience dealing with the media and being one of the people present at the incidents they cover, then you know that they NEVER get the whole story the way it really happened.
You have to remember that the Sheriff is a politician like any other. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is a HUGE organization, and the Sheriff does not have his hands in every single thing that goes on every day at the Sheriff's Office. That would be an impossible task. There are too many areas.
People who work in Law Enforcement are just like everyone else, because they are human. They make mistakes. Most of them are good, but there are always going to be people who turn out to be lazy, stupid, mean, unreliable, or corrupt. These people do get weeded out, but they can cause problems before they do. By and large, the people who work for the Sheriff's Office are excellent people.
Contrary to what you see in the media, Corrections Officers are not cruel, corrupt, miscreants. They do not beat people indiscriminately or torture people for fun. Quite the opposite, because of the constant scrutiny in the media, they have to be extremely careful about what they do. They run the risk of being fired or sued if they even appear to be doing something on a laundry list of things that are forbidden. There are manuals that are thousands of pages long that tell them what they can and cannot do. People get fired all the time for misconduct.
The New Times has been trying to bring down the Sheriff for over ten years now. They frequently bash employees of the Sheriff’s Office, calling Deputies "Barney Fifes" and accusing Detention Officers of being murderers.
What I have always wondered about the New Times is, if corruption is so pervasive in the Sheriff's Office, why haven't they had one of their investigative journalists hire on with the Sheriff's Office? They've had ten years, after all... can none of their staff pass the background check? With an organization that is allegedly corrupt from top to bottom, it shouldn't be too hard to expose the corruption as an insider.
I know someone who works there very well. The truth is, the Sheriff is not to blame for the problems in the jails. Maricopa County has the same problems that most Law Enforcement agencies have... not enough staff, not enough jails, and too many inmates. The county is on a full press to hire, and the starting pay was recently raised… the problem is that there are not enough qualified applicants walking in the doors. Turnover is high as well... working in a jail sucks, and everyone moves on, either within the Sheriff’s Office to better positions, to the streets as Deputies, or to other agencies.
Pay rates are not up to the Sheriff, although he can recommend they change. Pay rates are decided by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Every inmate at the Tents jail is SENTENCED. The Tents have gotten a lot of press for being tough, but in actuality the inmates prefer to be in the Tents rather than other facilities.
Anyone who calls any Maricopa County Jail a “gulag” is insulting people who have been in concentration camps.
Phones, TVs, commissary, hot meals, showers, mail, religious services, educational classes…yeah, these guys have it real tough. What a joke. Only privileged people living in a wealthy country would characterize this treatment as harsh. Why don’t you spend some time in a Mexican, Turkish, or Middle Eastern jail? Then you will see harsh treatment.
The inmates are not starving because they only get two meals a day. The kitchens’ dieticians follow guidelines on the number of required calories, and the two meals meet those requirements. No one starves, to the contrary, most inmates put on quite a few pounds after they've been in jail for a while. They are not purposely served moldy food. A lot of the food is donated, and much of it is past the "best when used by date", so stores can't sell it, but that doesn't mean it's not edible. All food is checked for spoilage before distribution. If food does arrive spoiled, the inmates can exchange it for unspoiled food. Many of the Officers working the jails get their meals straight off the cart that is being served to the inmates. It's kind of like food in the military; sometimes it's good, sometimes it sucks.
The Sheriff is frequently in the media, and his "America's Toughest Sheriff" image probably contributes to the numerous lawsuits. However, inmate lawsuits are not something limited to Maricopa County, it's a problem everywhere in this nation.
Jail staff does not beat blind wheelchair bound inmates for not showing their ID card, or murder inmates at will. Like street cops, Detention Officers do not strike inmates unless in self-defense, and even then it almost never requires that level of force. Most use of force is "soft hands" or non-lethal weapons. Any use of force including or above non-lethal weapons goes before a use of force review board, and there is lots of paperwork involved. The Sheriff put cameras in the main intake area so people could see that no one was being beaten, but of course those had to be turned off because it was violating the pre-trial detainees rights, never mind that the local news puts pre-trial detainees on TV all the time.
Officers are verbally abused by inmates all day every day. They are frequently physically attacked, and inmates threaten to kill them and their families. Most Officers have never abused nor witnessed the abuse of an inmate. Quite the opposite, they exhibit great restraint after they have been spit on or attacked with urine or feces. If they did witness an inmate being abused or the excessive use of force, they would report it to their supervisor. They have families to feed, and they are not going to lose their jobs trying to cover up someone else's bad behavior.
Pre-trial inmates are not made to work on chain gangs. And in reality, working the chain gang is a privilege that has a waiting list. All sentenced inmates are put to work. If they screw up, they can lose their work status and end up spending their time in a 23 hour a day lockdown. The only way to regain work status is by working on the chain. It is still completely voluntary though; they can choose to spend their whole sentence in a cell doing nothing if they want.
The inmates are not made to wear pink underwear because it is embarrassing. Originally, the underwear was dyed pink simply because so much underwear was being stolen by inmates who were being released (inmates stealing, go figure). With the pink underwear, when the inmates get dressed in their street clothes and are ready to be released, there is no dispute about to whom the pink underwear belongs to. It is easy for the Officers who work release to spot and reclaim pink underwear.
As for the people who cry “they are pre-trial, they are probably good innocent people or people who just made a mistake”… most of the pre-trial inmates are many time losers who are in and out of jail all the time. They've all got priors, better than half have probation violation charges to go along with their new charges. Decent people who "just made one mistake" never see the inside of a jail housing unit, because they get released on their own recognizance right out of IA court. Make no mistake, the guys in county jails waiting for trial are dirt bags. Yes, we need to treat them humanely, and they ARE treated humanely. But don’t find yourself feeling sorry for them because there are a few privileges they don’t have.
Someone I know wrote the following:
Who We Are
They don't make Hollywood motion pictures, or weekly television programs that glamorize our work. On the contrary, these mediums portray us as brutal, sadistic, and corrupt.
We get little or no respect. The news media doesn't even bother to get our job titles right, they just call us all "guards". We are NOT "guards"… guards watch over things that have value, such as school crosswalks, or gold bricks.
The pay is mediocre with the same government benefits you receive if you collect taxes, or work the window at the MVD.
We work in ugly places, with ugly people. The work is dangerous, and the hours are poor. Everyday, we face the risk of catching dangerous infectious diseases, being physically assaulted, or killed.
We still show up.
Regular folks don't notice us, most of the time they don't even realize we are there. Out of sight, out of mind. Most people don't go to the neighborhoods where we work. But the world is a safer place, because we are there… and we are there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. There are no holidays for us.
Our jobs are hard on our families. If we are lucky enough to be off to attend a family gathering, family or friends may ask us how our day was. Sometimes we can't tell, because the truth is too disgusting or scary to repeat during a family event.
A Police Officer interacts with regular people on the street. They can stop for coffee, flash their lights for a child, or wave at a friendly citizen as they pass by.
We interact with metal bars, Plexiglas, heavy steel doors… and people who are angry with us, just for doing a job.
What would Police Officers do, if they had nowhere to drop off those they apprehend?
The people in my line of work are some of the finest people I have ever known. Despite this, they are characterized by some as being cruel, vicious monsters. Quite the opposite, I have witnessed firsthand countless cases and could cite limitless examples of extreme patience, tact, tolerance, and restraint in the carrying out of their assigned duties.
Courage and selflessness are common traits in my brethren.
Have you hugged your Corrections Officer today?
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07-20-2007, 03:37 PM
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Arizona is known for it's media ****'S and let's not forget our other public embarrassments. Martin LK day with Gov. Ed Mecham, Symingtons adventure, although I like his recent Phx. Lights UFO sighting cover up story.lolhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMfEV5qATrY , crime ratings, highest teen suicide rate as seen on Good Morning America, 49th in education as seen on CNN, second fastest growing state behind Nevada as seen on just about every station and in resent years good ole' pink undies as a way to fight our crime, which has escalated since we hired the twisted little dude. And a posse, giddy up Arizona.
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