WATCH: Prisoners Talk About Guns

Gun confessions from inside Maricopa County Jail.

Inmates tell Fox News where they get weapons on the outside: "When choosing a target we definitely try to stay away from houses with guns!"

This is disturbing on many levels, not the least of which being the outdoor housing which immediately tells you that despite hundreds of billions poured into the prison industrial complex over the last few decades, we're putting away so many non-violent drug offenders with ridiculous mandatory minimums that infrastructure can't keep up with demand.  Oh yeah, and Maricopa County is home of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

I looked further and found this NBC broadcast from May 2012.:

Inside Maricopa County Jail

All text below is from the Youtube page.

The Tents Jail was begun in 1993 when Sheriff Joe Arpaio was able to obtain some surplus military tents. These tents were set up in an area adjacent to one of the existing Maricopa County Jails in Phoenix, Arizona. Sheriff Arpaio had previously decided that he would not release any inmates due to jail overcrowding, and housing sentenced inmates in the tents seemed a good solution. Funding for the project was minimal, and included the cost for cement necessary for base pads, secure fencing, and electric costs for heating, cooling and lights.

The Tents Jail can currently hold up to 2,126 inmates.

Sheriff Arpaio has added a few improvements at the Tents Jail, including four Sky Watch Towers for security, stun fences around the perimeter, and facial recognition computer software for inmate identification. K-9 units and patrol deputies have been added for additional security. The Classification Unit conducts background checks on inmates before they are housed in the tents, so that dangerous or predatory individuals are not placed there.

Comments

[Cheyenne]

"This is disturbing on many levels, not the least of which being the outdoor housing which immediately tells you that despite hundreds of billions poured into the prison industrial complex over the last few decades, we're putting away so many non-violent drug offenders with ridiculous mandatory minimums that infrastructure can't keep up with demand."

Lying at the root of this problem, or course, is the outsourcing of the state's imprisonment functionality. Predictably, the legislators and regulators who did this were either so stupid that they couldn't foresee the effects of fraud on their new system, or were rewarded for creating it in the first place.

Once implemented, the newfound drive for profitability necessitates both higher incarceration rates and longer sentences so that prison head counts are kept at a maximum. The underlying bases for the convictions--which criminal statute was violated, the sufficiency of the evidence, etc.--is of no concern whatsoever to a private prison, which indeed guarantees that fraud will corrode the justice system itself.

This fascist perversion has resulted in documented instances of private prisons bribing judges to obtain more convictions:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2011/08/12/pennsylvania-judge-gets-life-sentence-for-prison-kickback-scheme (judge took "a $1 million kickback from the builder of for-profit prisons for juveniles.")

http://www.inquisitr.com/211740/u-s-judges-admit-to-jailing-children-for-money ("The companies in question paid the two judges more than $2.6 million dollars to send children to detention.")

[john]

Cheyenne, all of this shit gets more surreal every day. I have never seen so many who apparently like being kicked in the nuts over and over again and just keep taking it...

[RRK]

Fine, so give everyone a gun, or two, or three, plus a tank, some bio and maybe nukes. At least all will be equal, great progress. Then we need another Ronald Reagan who gets senses into people, and arms off the street.

[john]

I wonder how Sysco is doing in this business...

http://my.firedoglake.com/cranestation/2011/08/14/sunday-food-prison-food-privatization-and-aramark/

[SKINFLINT]

The truth of prisons. http://blackagendareport.com/content/%E2%80%9Cfelony-new-%E2%80%98n-word%E2%80%9D-michelle-alexander-mass-incarceration-%E2%80%9C-new-jim-crow%E2%80%9D-age-obama

[chiller]

Want to really make a statement anti-gun advocates? Proudly display it on your front lawn. This will draw crooks to your house away from mine. Then you can put all your faith in 911 as you experience minutes turning into hours while you wait for the police to arrive. Just don't count on this neighbor to lift a finger to help you...

[monk]

Some gun owners don't mention that they are packing, and some non-gun owners may fool criminals into thinking that their home contains guns.

Given that, criminals will strike for various reasons, and it will not necessarily have to do with gun control or gun ownership.

Also, whether or not you have guns, you will still need to rely on 911. And your neighbors.