The Sadistic Profligacy of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

by Will Grigg
Dec. 04, 2013

Joe Arpaio unabashedly claims to be the world’s toughest sheriff. While his claim to that title is implausible, he is incontestably the country’s most expensive law enforcement officer: His twenty-year reign as sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County has cost taxpayers more than $50 million in lawsuits and settlements arising from abuses committed by his deputies -- including deaths of non-violent offenders incarcerated in his jail.

Arpaio has been indifferent to those abuses and the costs they have inflicted on his constituents. Thus it’s reasonable to believe that something other than austerity prompted him to cut back on meal service within his jail by feeding inmates only twice a day, and going to an exclusively vegetarian menu. He proudly reports the average inmate meal costs between 15 and 40 cents.

On Thanksgiving, Arpaio issued a public statement inviting inmates to thank him for splurging on a special holiday meal – the main course for which was something called turkey soy casserole – that cost 56 cents per inmate.

While cultivating his media image and indulging his sadistic whims, Arpaio left tens of thousands of felony warrants go un-served, and ignored hundreds of cases involving child sex abuse. He has been a burden on the law-abiding, and a blessing for the lawless.