Arpaio's 16 years as Sheriff may come to end
By Jenna DuffyEditor-In-Chief, The VOICE
Maricopa County is one of the biggest "celebrity" counties when it comes to law enforcement practices. With "America's Toughest Sheriff" Joe Arpaio constantly in the media for his latest "tough on crime" tactics, it's no wonder the entire country takes notice.
Then it's really no wonder when the entire country and county residents notice that the crime rates have steadily risen, while emergency response times have jumped up to 10 minutes, and jail recidivism rates (inmate return rates) are up to around seven out of 10.
There has been country wide press on the civil rights lawsuits that have cost the Arizona tax payers millions of dollars in settlements due to negligence and abuse in the Maricopa County Jail system over the years.
Do these "get tough" tactics work? Running mate Dan Saban doesn't think so.
"It's an honor to have my name on the ballot but the victory is ours because it's about stepping up to a bully, it's about letting your voice be heard and the criticalness of this election. America citizens' rights are being violated. This is a call to action," says Saban firmly.
Saban is an Arizona native and has spent 32 years in law enforcement. He has a Bachelor's degree in Justice Studies from Arizona State University and later earned a Master's degree in Human Relations from Northern Arizona University. Recently retiring from the position of Chief of Buckeye police Saban feels that it's time to stop humiliating people and violating their rights.
Arpaio has also received a lot of press time by cracking down on illegal immigration with the help of the Maricopa County deputies, raiding Hispanic communities and arresting hundreds of immigrants for minor infractions, such as not wearing a seatbelt or not stopping long enough at stop signs.
Saban counters, "These sweeps of aggressive immigrations approach that Arpaio has created a tremendous amount of fear and diminishing trust. It's affecting all law enforcement because all law enforcement is being judged by the actions of this man. It's creating dilemmas in the city because now Latino members of our communities are not willing to come forward and be witnesses or not reporting crimes themselves because they don't want to be harassed."
Saban doesn't have the 16 years experience that Sheriff Arpaio does. Maricopa County has been with Arpaio a long time and has seen some of the positive changes Arpaio has brought valley residents such as neighborhood block watches, child identification and fingerprinting, and the all-too-hilarious pink underwear worn by inmates. Not to mention the programs in the jails such as the Chain Gangs, allowing inmates to work, and Hard Knocks High, allowing inmates to get their high school diploma.
Then there is the darker side to this "justice" including rank food, improper healthcare, and blatant negligence for his pretrial detainees leading to losing the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) jails health accreditation.
"I'm very concerned about it all, inmates need to be treated with dignity and respect, they need to be fed properly, I'm not about coffee and TV and magazines but I am about rehabilitation, people in Tent City are convicted of misdemeanors, these are folks we need to reinvest in to get them back active in our communities.
Arpaio's method, as you may know, has shown a 65-70 per cent recidivism rate which means the people that go though that system come back within 30 months, that's seven out of ten so this getting tough and humiliation and not feeding people properly is not working," says Saban.
"Get tough" policies may be glamorous but when they don't produce results election time is when two million voters need to step back and evaluate what's happening in our county.
