I'm sure that Sheriff Joe and his crew will take good care of him. Best lawman in America.
Tell that to the people who have won millions of dollars in lawsuits against this piece of shit. Maricopa County has paid more than $43 million in settlement claims during Arpaio's tenure. Not only that, but innocent people waiting trial are forced to live in these tent cities.
Here are several examples of how much of a fuckup he is:
Controversy and criticism
To several organizations such as the
ACLU and
Amnesty International, Arpaio's actions may be based less on a desire to serve the public and to lower crime, but more on demagoguery and grandstanding that does not serve the public welfare.
Amnesty International issued a report critical of the treatment of inmates in Maricopa County facilities.<sup id="cite_ref-AIill_2-1" class="reference">
[3]</sup> <sup id="cite_ref-wake_45-0" class="reference">
[46]</sup> <sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference">
[47]</sup>
From 2004 through November 2007, Arpaio was the target of 2,150 lawsuits in U.S. District Court and hundreds more in Maricopa County courts<sup id="cite_ref-wake_45-1" class="reference">
[46]</sup>; 50 times as many prison-conditions lawsuits as the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston jail systems combined.<sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference">
[48]</sup>
Arpaio is named in a class-action lawsuit, Hart v. Arpaio, brought by Phoenix attorney Debra Hill and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of jail inmates. The lawsuit centers on the treatment of pretrial detainees, who are legally innocent until proven guilty. The lawsuit claims that Arpaio is violating the constitutional rights of those detainees. The trial in the lawsuit began on August 12, 2008.<sup id="cite_ref-wake_45-2" class="reference">
[46]</sup><sup id="cite_ref-48" class="reference">
[49]</sup>
By mid-2007, more than $50 million in claims had been filed against the sheriff's office and Maricopa County.
In her book on prison policy
The Use of Force by Detention Officers,
Arizona State University criminal justice professor Marie L. Griffin reported on a 1998 study commissioned by Arpaio to examine
recidivism rates based on conditions of confinement. Comparing recidivism rates under Arpaio to those under his predecessor, the study found "there was no significant difference in recidivism observed between those offenders released in 1989-1990 and those released in 1994-1995."<sup id="cite_ref-UoF_49-0" class="reference">
[50]</sup>
[edit] Inmate deaths and injuries
Family members of inmates who have died or been injured in jail custody have filed lawsuits against the sheriff’s office. Maricopa County has paid more than $43 million in settlement claims during Arpaio's tenure. <sup id="cite_ref-wake_45-3" class="reference">
[46]</sup> <sup id="cite_ref-50" class="reference">
[51]</sup>
[edit] Charles Agster
In August 2001, Charles Agster, a 33-year-old mentally handicapped man, died in the county jail three days after being forced by sheriff's officers into a restraint chair used for controlling combative arrestees. Agster's parents had been taking him to a psychiatric hospital because he was exhibiting
paranoia, then called police when he refused to leave a convenience store where they had stopped enroute. Officers took Agster to the Madison Street jail, placed a "spit hood" over his face and strapped him to the chair, where he had an apparent seizure and lost consciousness. He was declared brain dead three days later. A medical examiner later concluded that Agster died of complications of
methamphetamine intoxication. In a subsequent lawsuit, an attorney for the sheriff's office described the amount of methamphetamine in Agster's system as 17 times the known lethal dose. The lawsuit resulted in a $9 million jury verdict against the county, the sheriff's office, and
Correctional Health Services.<sup id="cite_ref-51" class="reference">
[52]</sup>
[edit] Scott Norberg
One major controversy includes the 1996 death of inmate Scott Norberg, a former
Brigham Young University football wide receiver, who died while in custody of the Sheriff's office.<sup id="cite_ref-52" class="reference">
[53]</sup> Norberg was arrested for assaulting a police officer in
Mesa, Arizona, after neighbors in a residential area had reported a delirious man walking in their neighborhood.<sup id="cite_ref-53" class="reference">
[54]</sup> Arpaio's office repeatedly claimed Norberg was also high on
methamphetamine, but a blood
toxicology performed post-mortem was inconclusive. Norberg did, however, have methamphetamine in his urine, proving that he had used the drug at some point fairly recently before his death. During his internment, evidence suggests
detention officers shocked Norberg several times with a
stun-gun. 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. After Norberg's corpse was discovered, detention officers accused Norberg of attacking them as they were trying to restrain him. The cause of his death, according to the Maricopa County medical examiner, was due to "
positional asphyxia". Sheriff Arpaio investigated and subsequently cleared detention officers of any criminal wrongdoing.<sup id="cite_ref-54" class="reference">
[55]</sup>
Norberg’s parents filed a lawsuit against Arpaio and his office. The lawsuit was settled for $8.25 million
(USD).<sup id="cite_ref-55" class="reference">
[56]</sup>
[edit] Brian Crenshaw
Brian Crenshaw was a legally blind and mentally disabled inmate who suffered fatal injuries while being held in Maricopa Country Jail.
Crenshaw's family filed a lawsuit against Arpaio and his office, which resulted in an award of $2 million.<sup id="cite_ref-56" class="reference">
[57]</sup> As in the Scott Norberg case, it was alleged that Arpaio's office destroyed evidence in the case. In the Crenshaw case, the attorney who represented the case before a jury alleged digital video evidence was destroyed.<sup id="cite_ref-57" class="reference">
[58]</sup>
[edit] Richard Post
Richard Post was a
paraplegic inmate arrested in 1996 for possession of marijuana and criminal trespass. Post was placed in a restraint chair by guards and his neck was broken in the process. The event, caught on video, shows guards smiling and laughing while Post is being injured. Because of his injuries, Post has lost much of the use of his arms.<sup id="cite_ref-58" class="reference">
[59]</sup> Post settled his claims against the Sheriff's office for $800,000.<sup id="cite_ref-59" class="reference">
[60]</sup>
[edit] Jeremy Flanders
In 1996, Jeremy Flanders was attacked by inmates at Tent City who used rebar tent stakes, which were not concreted into the ground. Although these stakes had been used as weapons in a previous riot at the facility, the Sheriff's office chose not to secure them properly. During the trial, the plaintiff "presented evidence that, among other things, the Sheriff and his deputies had actual knowledge that prisoners used rebar tent stakes and tent poles as weapons and did nothing to prevent it." Furthermore, "the Sheriff admitted knowing about, and in fact intentionally designing, some conditions at Tent City that created a substantial risk of inmate violence." After the attack: "another inmate entered the tent and found Flanders unconscious, gasping for air, and spewing blood out of his mouth, nose and ears. Flanders had been bloodied and beaten so badly that the other inmate initially did not recognize Flanders." Flanders suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the attack. On appeal, Flanders was awarded $635,532, of which Arpaio was personally responsible for thirty-five percent.<sup id="cite_ref-Cates_18-1" class="reference">
[19]</sup>
[edit] Ambria Renee Spencer
In 2006, inmate Ambrett Spencer, who was incarcerated for drunk driving and was nine months pregnant with a baby girl, complained of severe stomach pains and asked for medical attention. The infirmary nurse, who had no prenatal training, believed the pain was not an emergency. It was two hours before an ambulance was called for Spencer, who in the meantime had passed out from severely low blood pressure and lost so much color that the EMT who arrived at the scene said he knew she was "not getting enough blood to [her] organs and skin." At the hospital -- four hours after first reporting pain -- Spencer gave birth to a dead daughter, Ambria Renee. It was determined that Spencer's pain had been caused by
placental abruption, internal bleeding resulting in loss of blood to the baby, which babies can usually survive if the mother is taken to the hospital and labor is quickly induced.
Ambrett Spencer has filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County, which as of November 2008 has not yet gone to trial. The county claims that the ambulance service is at fault for not transporting Spencer to the hospital fast enough.
Other female inmates have had miscarriages while incarcerated in Arpaio's jail and have reported physical abuse or neglect which they believe contributed to the loss of their pregnancies. <sup id="cite_ref-Phoenix_New_Times_60-0" class="reference">
[61]</sup>
[edit] Icelandic extradition refusal
An Icelandic court in 1997 refused to extradite Connie and Donald Hanes to Maricopa County after hearing evidence about the county jail<sup id="cite_ref-61" class="reference">
[62]</sup>.
[edit] Enforcement acts of deputies and posse
[edit] Botched raid
In 2004, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
SWAT team led a raid on an
Ahwatukee home in a gated subdivision, looking for illegal weapons. No illegal weapons were found, but during the raid, the house burned down, SWAT officers forced a dog back into the building where it subsequently died, and an armored vehicle rolled into a neighbor's parked car as a result of brake failure.<sup id="cite_ref-62" class="reference">
[63]</sup>
[edit] Prostitution sting
In an undercover
sting operation in November, 2003, sheriff's deputies arrested over 70 people for
prostitution and
solicitation of prostitution. The officers arrested alleged prostitutes and their alleged customers in more than thirty homes and ten
massage parlors in the Phoenix area. Records indicated that several of the officers and civilian posse members disrobed, fondled the breasts and genitals of the alleged prostitutes, and allowed their penises to be touched during the operation in the hopes of convincing the women they were not law enforcement officers. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office stated that the Sheriff's office had gone too far in allowing this behavior, and sixty of the cases were thrown out. Several of the customers in the case were prosecuted successfully.<sup id="cite_ref-63" class="reference">
[64]</sup>
