Judges Junk Jailcam

theodp writes "With one dissenting opinion, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an AZ sheriff's use of Webcams to broadcast prisoners being booked and held in cells constituted a profoundly undesirable level of humiliation, rejecting the sheriff's argument that the Webcasts deterred crime and showed the public how jails work." The Village Voice has a good article from a few years ago detailing how the jailcams work.

Comments

Re:The problem is with *who* the cams are on...

[Saige]

Joe Arpaio has made a career of mistreating people that are being held for crimes they are not yet even found guilty of. He's been in trouble before for various activities of his before, including feeding those under his charge food that has been known to be bad - such as moldy bologna sandwiches.

That's right, all you have to do to enter Arpaio's 'House of Cruelty and Being Treated as an Animal' is be arrested for a crime. The police could be wrong, which is not uncommon, but you've already been treated as if you were guilty by that bastard.

Not only have I wished Arpaio would lose the office, but I've wished that he would be arrested and found guilty of thousands of counts of cruelty.

Re:Sheriff Joe Loses AGAIN! :)

[tootlemonde]

His jailhouse tactics have cost the county millions in legal fees and settlements...

An article in Harper's from April, 2001, says: "So far, the total bill for jury awards and settlements is approximately $15 million."

The article notes:

Arpaio has reduced neither the crime rate nor the rate of recidivism in Phoenix. He has had no discernible effect whatsoever. He serves only to con the public into thinking that something is being done about crime. Phoenix is bucking the national trend: as crime falls nationwide, it increases here. Especially violent crime. In 1992, 136 people were murdered in the city; in 1999, 214. There were more murders, rapes, and car theft in 1999 than in the previous year. Arpaio's defenders can argue that the population is increasing, so the statistics are misleading. But this is disingenuous. Most homicides--which have increased by nearly two thirds since 1992 while the population has grown only by a quarter--are not committed by opportunistic yuppies coming here to work dot-corn jobs. The reality is indisputable: in Phoenix, your chance of getting killed is better since Arpaio took office.

However, Arpaio has a high approval rating, is regularly re-elected and his endorsement is sought by nearly all politicians.

Oh joy. Sheriff Joe again.

[72beetle]

Just in case you're interested on what the aforementioned sheriff is up to THESE days, take a look at the latest New Times.

-72