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Joe Arpaio is right at the top among douchebag public officials. This is the same department that
stages ridiculous, unnecessary raids and thinks housing inmates in tents during the Phoenix summer builds character.
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Why do you think the inmates are there, vacation? I'm not a big fan of Arpaio, but as someone who works in the "system" I'm all for someone who can reduce the cost of housing inmates. That money could go to other things, like pay increases, or new equipment.
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Since you're in the law enforcement profession, and especially since you say you're not a big fan of Arpaio, some of the following may not apply to you, but the bolded part above is sadly typical of Arpaio cheerleaders and betrays a sad ignorance of the situation.
There's a strong argument to be made for harsh conditions in prisons, where inmates have been convicted of serious (often violent) felonies. But Arpaio does not run a prison - he runs a jail system.
Something like 70% of his detainees have not been convicted of a crime. A large chunk of them are simply poor and unable to afford bail. Even among the convicts, the vast majority of them are convicted of nonviolent misdemeanors and serve an average sentence of something like 22 days. To compare this population to the inmates at your maximum security facility is absurd.
As far as reducing costs, wouldn't it be better to reduce the number of people incarcerated than to reduce the cost of incarceration? Arpaio's intention has always been to keep the maximum number of people in jail as possible, and to house them in conditions as harsh as he can possibly get away with. He's grabbed headlines over the past 20 years with his silly stunts which supposedly save the taxpayers money ("tents!", "pink underwear!", "bologna sandwiches!") but he has no real interest in saving money. It would save far more money to reduce the inmate population by finding ways to keep some of these nonviolent detainees out of jail. Other counties, even in Arizona, are apparently quite successful at this.
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Says attorney Bruce Feder, who has defended indigent clients in city court, many of whom could not pay the smallest bond amounts, "We have to decide if we really need to pay $40 a day to house someone because they can't pay a $30 bond on a $20 original ticket."
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This is from
an article from nearly 10 years ago, and nothing has changed since then except we have $300 million worth of new jails (financed through a voter-approved tax increase). And the tents are still open.
Finally, the county has had to pay millions of dollars in fines and judgements because they keep maiming and killing people. The largest, I think, was 8.5 million in the death of Scott Norberg.
Now
that's money that I certainly would have liked to see go instead to pay increases for officers or new equipment.
I could go on and on, but Arpaio's wikipedia page has a decent rundown of the controversies, and Phoenix New Times has many excellent stories going back 15 years exposing Arpaio's corruption and incompetence.