Journalists Arrested for Revealing Grand Jury Info

[DblBarrelJ]

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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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I'm really glad you brought this up, as I didn't really want to get into it, but this is my biggest beef with Arpaio.

I do bail recovery work from time to time on the side, and I have many contacts in the industry here in GA. To be a Bondsman, you must be certified by the Sheriff of the county you're to be bonding in, and Arpaio is so tough to work with that many bondsmen who may have bonded these people out on some type of plan have left town.

As a matter of fact, I've been out on a few dates with a bondsman who has opened up an office in GA recently who moved from Maricopa County, AZ.

She's told me that she had to fill out her paperwork seven times before he accepted it, then he denied it, she resubmitted, and Arpaio finally approved her to be a bondsman.

FWIW, I searched online and found FOUR Bail Bond companies still working in Maricopa County.

So you're absolutely correct, and I do understand what you're saying about the inmates. It was mainly just me being pissed off about the flatscreen TV/Taser situation.

However, with Arpaio running all the Bondsmen out of Maricopa Co, he's effectively keeping his jails full. Most bondsmen will put you on a plan for small crimes, just to show that they "Have a heart" or whatever.

[Jamougha]

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I'm not too interested in big liberal tears for inmates right now, but then again I'm probably bias. Our Warden just denied 8 requests for new Tasers (~$500 per unit) Friday, the same day that 5 52" Flatscreens were installed, 1 in each of the five inmate rec rooms. We didn't have the funding for the tasers, but we did get the funding for the TVs???

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I'm pretty ignorant about prisons, but I would have thought that TVs would do quite a lot to reduce behavioural problems. Bread and circuses, no?

[guids]

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I'm not too interested in big liberal tears for inmates right now, but then again I'm probably bias. Our Warden just denied 8 requests for new Tasers (~$500 per unit) Friday, the same day that 5 52" Flatscreens were installed, 1 in each of the five inmate rec rooms. We didn't have the funding for the tasers, but we did get the funding for the TVs???

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I'm pretty ignorant about prisons, but I would have thought that TVs would do quite a lot to reduce behavioural problems. Bread and circuses, no?

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ya......it really worked well for the Romans. wtf?

[AzDesertRat]

This was [censored] ridiculous. Andrew Thomas tries to portray the tough guy and Sheriff Joe never met a mic he never liked. I hope both of them feel the ramifications from the voters or better yet, from their peers (doubtful on this end).

[DblBarrelJ]

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I'm not too interested in big liberal tears for inmates right now, but then again I'm probably bias. Our Warden just denied 8 requests for new Tasers (~$500 per unit) Friday, the same day that 5 52" Flatscreens were installed, 1 in each of the five inmate rec rooms. We didn't have the funding for the tasers, but we did get the funding for the TVs???

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I'm pretty ignorant about prisons, but I would have thought that TVs would do quite a lot to reduce behavioural problems. Bread and circuses, no?

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Actually, about 1/2 the fights I break up in the rec areas are because an inmate got up and changed the channel and another inmate got pissed.

Hard physical activity reduces fights. Keep the inmates so exhausted from working all day that they're too tired to fight amongst themselves.

Behavior in general? Can't be fixed. While a small majority of these guys are decent people who had a very serious lapse in judgement, most, at least by the time they get to my facility, are hardened criminals, that I personally believe are beyond real rehabilitation.

You can tell alot by looking at these guys. When you talk to them, some have a little bit of light left, and I try to help them, get them preferred jobs, stuff to read, particularly if they show an interest in something they could make a career out of. The rest, well, you just keep them in line until they are released, they go back on the street, get into trouble, and come back "home".

I really don't know what the answers are. As I said, I have strong doubts to whether rehabilitation is possible.

Maybe Joe Arpaio is making a small difference with his Tents and bologna sandwiches, scaring some of the first time offenders before they end up in a state run Max facility like mine, maybe he's not. I don't know the answer to that.

What I do know is that about 90% of my "customers" are dead on the inside, or so it seems. No "soul" (I'm not an atheist, if you are, insert whatever term you feel more appropriate there, just please don't post a reply concerning my use of that term - Thanks -J), rarely do you hear anything intelligent concerning what they'll do when they get out. I've heard "I'm going to get out of her, get me the FINEST HOE I can get, and then I'm gonna go get drunk as [censored]!!" Much more often than "I'm going to go, get a fresh start, try to get a job bagging groceries, start my life over again, maybe try to find a good girl, start a family. Maybe I could even manage the grocery store some day!"

[Jamougha]

DB,

Interesting, I guess that makes sense. As for behaviour, one thing may make a difference; nutrition. A double-blind placebo trial at a prison in the UK demonstrated a 37% reduction in violent behaviour among prisoners given a combination of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids (link ). There are two attempts under way to replicate the results, one in the US and one in Denmark IIRC. If it pans out I imagine it would be a big boost to people in your job.

[DblBarrelJ]

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DB,

Interesting, I guess that makes sense. As for behaviour, one thing may make a difference; nutrition. A double-blind placebo trial at a prison in the UK demonstrated a 37% reduction in violent behaviour among prisoners given a combination of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids (link ). There are two attempts under way to replicate the results, one in the US and one in Denmark IIRC. If it pans out I imagine it would be a big boost to people in your job.

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The Georgia DJJ (Department of Juvenile Justice) has been conducting similar studies in some of their facilities, with some success, however, while the success factor showed improvement all across the board, the study showed that the younger the inmate, the more behavior improvement, ie, a drop of 65% in write-ups for juveniles between the ages of 12-14, where inmates 16-18 only show a drop of ~25%.

I'm all for it, however. a 25% drop is a 25% drop.

[Jamougha]

DB,

wow 65% is huge. Given that most of the 'hardened criminals' you describe started getting into trouble as children, I wonder how much supplementation early on would have prevented them from going down the path they did. I recall a study showing that a small but significant minority of American working class children are quite severely malnourished, enough to drop their IQ's dramatically.

Wouldn't it be funny if moral fiber turns out to be mainly to do with your diet? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]