Isn't it backwards to give prisoners more rights than the average family?

Sheriff Joe of Maricopa County, AZ has made his prison a model the rest of the nation should follow

MARICOPA COUNTY, Arizona (CNN) -- The tent city looks like a military camp in the desert, with thick canvas sleeping quarters spreading out in a remote area of Arizona.

The inhabitants, however, are not soldiers, but residents of an unusual, some say brutal, prison run by legendary lawman Joe Arpaio, called the toughest sheriff in the West.

For the Maricopa County sheriff, who opened the nation's largest tent prison in 1993, saving taxpayer pennies matters more than comforting convicted felons.

"We took away coffee, that saved $150,000 a year. Why do you need coffee in jail?" says Arpaio, patrolling the dusty, barren grounds. "Switched to bologna sandwiches, that saved half a million dollars a year."

Arpaio makes inmates pay for their meals, which some say are worse than those for the guard dogs. Canines eat $1.10 worth of food a day, the inmate 90 cents, the sheriff says. "I'm very proud of that too."

Critics rail against harsh conditions in the prison, where temperatures can top 100 degrees.

"We still have rights, but they act like we're scum," one inmate complains.

Arpaio boasts of his chain gangs for men and women, which "contribute thousands of dollars of free labor to taxpayers each month," according to his Web site.

Yes, the system is truly backwards and you have only libtards to thank. There is a common libturd philosophy that because people are poor or uneducated they have fewer opportunities and that gives them the right to do crimes against people. For example, here in Maryland last week a crazy guy was hitting his family with a baseball bat, the police were called, the officer used a taser on the guy and the guy ended up dying. Now the libturd government here wants the police to reexamine the use of tasers. Police experts like former police commissioner Ed Norris pointed out that the criminal was using lethal force against others and if the officer didn't have a taser he would have had no other course of action except just shooting the guy.

However, there is hope. There are still a number of plantation prisions in Louisiana and Alabama where any inmate who is not in the infirmary of elderly must get up on time and go to work all day doing agricultural work growing the food that the prisoners will eat. Bear in mind that Amnesty International and the United Nations are completely against making prisoners work for any reason.

You're out of your mind -- and I don't mind saying so. While I think personally, that many violent crimes & murder should instantly eliminate the guilty-party from this Earth... being behind bars is NOWHERE near how you portray it. Even for a few hours, at the police station. (go try it, before you carry-on about having to work and pay a cable bill) Actually, you are no different than the sort you despise/deride for wanting/getting things for free -- because here YOU are expecting a handout for watching TV? How about sitting outside on a lawn, or talking/visiting your relatives, playing with your kids or nieces/nephews, or to the other end of the point, having an intimate evening with your wife, or your co-worker or some broad you might have met on Yahoo or myspace (with your free time). -- all things that the incarcerated cannot do. (PS - grow up.)

I agree with you on things like cable. But everyone should have the right to 3 meals a day, including every citizen of the US. And if people aren't getting meals, that is a flaw in our systems. Also, you do get a free education. It is called high school. And education programs in prisons are very good ideas. They increase the likelihood that the criminals won't continue to be criminals when they are released. If they get an education, they are more likely to become contributors to society once released. And that is worth the cost.

And many prisons do have programs where the prisoners do labor for next to nothing. I like those programs because it not only gets something out of their time, but it teaches them work ethic and how to maintain a job.

Start by defining what the purpose of a prison is. Is it to reform or to punish? The prisons designed to just punish produce harder and more violent criminals. They will get out and will have toughened up because of the punishment inflicted upon them in prison. This does not help society at all.

However, by taking care of the prisoners and educating them, there is a better chance that the prisoner will never return to prison. I once heard that if you can get a prisoner to get his/her GED then odds are that prisoner will not be back in jail. If that prisoner can get a college degree then you can pretty much bank on that prisoner not getting back into jail.

Nothing like good ol liberal principles. A mass murderer lives "the good life" while an honest single mother of 3 struggles to scrap together enough money to get through the month. Doesn't make sense to me...

you know what i hate about US prisioners is that they live a better life than i do, they dont even work and get cable, food delivered 3 times a day, a nice place to live, can choose what to do as an extracurriclar activity and play around with jailmates and my taxes go to this crap, prisoners actually live better lives than most average Americans

Thank the Libs for that one. Prisoners should be made to do labor. Picking Trash, making license plates, making boots, Chaingang etc....

i would not say that is true. they can't exactly run down to the store for a paper and a 12-pack. when ion the custody of the state, they have to keep you alive and not treat you with cruelty or unusual punishment. even on chain gangs, they would have to eat. if its so great, go to jail.