2016 NJ State PBA Convention – Phoenix, Arizona
NJ State PBA Corrections Officers tour Tent City at Maricopa County Jail
n BY JOSHUA SIGMUND
n PHOTOS BY VICTOR BERMUDEZ
Take advantage of our sun-drenched fresh air lodgings.
Feast on specially prepared meals served daily.
Become trendsetters with haute couture fashion in inspiring
colors.
Simply follow the “vacancy” sign to Maricopa County Jail’s
Tent City, where your extended stay is on us.
Fine print: Being sun-drenched in triple-digit heat 24/7 is unavoidable; meals are meatless and only served twice a day; uniform colors are pink, “inspiring” you not to steal them; may not
be combined with any other privileges. Long-term (sentences)
and conditions may apply.
When in Arizona for the 2016 NJ State PBA Convention, an
expedition of New Jersey corrections officers was invited to tour
the notoriously unique brainchild of Maricopa County Sheriff
Joe Arpaio – his Tent City, where minimum-to-medium-security inmates are offered the opportunity to brave the elements in
exchange for a reduced sentence.
“If there’s scorpions, mice or snakes going to run through
there, they will run right through there,” reported Cumberland
County Corrections Local 231 State Delegate Victor Bermudez
following the tour that was guided by one of Arpaio’s lieutenants. “There’s nothing to keep the elements away. You watch the
TV programs and they dress it up and make it look harder than
it is; but from what I saw, it was exactly as advertised.”
Driven by his motto, “If our military guys can sleep out in
tents, so could our inmates,” Arpaio, who calls himself “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” used grants and military connections in
1993 to acquire a slew of bunks and massive camouflage tents,
erecting them on a slab of concrete in a large open field adjacent to the jail.
There is an indoor area with air conditioning, bathrooms,
showers and lockers available to inmates 24/7, but they have to
sleep outside in order to remain in the program. If the climate
gets too cold at night, the tent’s side flaps can drop down to keep
the heat inside and protect from rain.
During the tour, PBA members were able to mingle with Tent
City inmates, and received a spectrum of comments from them
about their exterior abodes.
“They were speaking pretty badly of the place and understandably I can imagine,” Bermudez noted. “It’s a deterrent after
all. There’s even a giant blinking ‘vacancy’ sign on the tower that
was donated by a hotel owner. They have a good sense of humor
– I guess you have to in that heat.”
On July 2, 2011, Arpaio recorded the temperature inside the
tents as having reached 145 degrees Fahrenheit, with inmates
reporting that their shoes had melted in the sweltering heat. It
was 103 degrees during the New Jersey tour.
“But there’s a positive effect,” added Mercer County Correction Officers Local 167 State Delegate Winslow Land. “Prisoners
volunteer to be here so there’s no animosity, otherwise they’d go
back inside. The worst (corrections officers) deal with is inmates
CONTINUED ON PAGE 58
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ OCTOBER 2016 57