Prison Tent Camps: A Short Term Solution to a Long Term Problem

Tent City in Maricopa County, Arizona

Can you imagine sleeping under tents in the middle of a scolding hot desert while eating bologna sandwiches everyday? No, I am not talking about the soldiers in Iraq. I’m referring to what many prisoners go through every day in Maricopa County, Arizona. One of the most controversial yet most backed sheriffs in the nation runs this “tent city” prison. “For the Maricopa county sheriff (Joe Arpaio) who opened the nation’s largest tent prison in 1993, saving taxpayers pennies matters more than comforting convicted felons.” (http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/27/tough.sheriff/).

With taxpayers across the nation dishing out more and more money every year for the overflow of prisoners entering our overcrowded system, alternatives such as tent prisons may become more of a trend. In the summer of 2006 a 65 million dollar “tent city” was built in Raymondville, Texas to be used as an immigration detention facility due to lack of space in the prisons. (http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2007/02/tent_city_in_te.html)

The advantage of these “tent prisons” is that taxpayers save money due to the cheaper up-keep, building expenses and electric expenses of these military camp-like structures. Supporters of tent prisons believe that criminals should pay for their crime and shouldn’t be awarded the amenities such as air conditioning and television. Sheriff Joe Arpaio has even gone as far as excluding coffee, which he claimed saved $150,000 a year. On top of this exclusion, “Arpaio makes inmates pay for their meals, which some say are worse than those of the guard dogs.
Canines eat $1.10 worth of food a day, the inmates 90 cents."
(http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/27/tough.sheriff/)

Critics of tent prisons deem the conditions in these prisons too ruthless. In Arizona temperatures have been known to reach all the way to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. In Raymondville, Texas at tent city, “a group of women huddled in a recreation yard on a 40-degree day with a 25-mph wind. They had no blanket, no sweat shirt, no jacket, officers were wearing earmuffs while detainees were outside for an hour with short sleeved polyester uniforms and shower shoes and not necessarily socks."
(http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2007/02/tent_city_in_te.html)

Conditions such as 120-degree weather in Arizona and 40-degree weather with flailing winds in Texas are reasons that critics call these jails merciless. One of the critics, Eleanor Eisenborg of the ACLU stated, “Sheriff Arpaio has conditions in his jail that are inhumane, and he’s proud of it.” (http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/27/tough.sheriff/)

Critics also are weary of tent jails because even though the Maricopa County jail is saving money on everyday amenities, they have been “hit with hundreds of inmate-related lawsuits, and ordered to pay millions in legal damages.” (http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/27/tough.sheriff/)

While prisons across America are overpopulated and legislators, lawmakers and the criminal justice system are all struggling to find a way to accommodate this huge influx of prisoners, tent prisons are not much of a solution. Criminals should pay for what they have done but putting people outside in horrid conditions is not the way to accomplish this. Many of the people that stay in tent city jails are non-violent offenders who would be better served by being involved in some type of intermediate sanction such as probation and counseling. Placing these non-violent prisoners in an inhumane environment, without electricity, proper nutrition, and hygiene is not the correct way to rehabilitate and better equip them with the proper skill-set to transition back into society and a working profession. Desperate measures such as tent camps are only a short-term solution to a long-term problem and a better solution must be made to solve this ever-increasing problem.