Finding Public Information

Joe Arpaio began his law enforcement career after leaving the army in 1953. He was a police officer in Washington D. C. and Las Vegas, NV. After almost five years as an officer, he became a federal narcotics agent. By the end of his illustrious DEA career, he was the head of the DEA in Arizona. 


He campaigned to become the Sheriff of Maricopa Country in 1992. He has held that position since 1992 and has been reelected every 4 years since. Sheriff Joe was recently re-elected in 2012 and at the time has vowed he would run in 2016 and at that time he would be 84 years old. Sheriff Joe has received high public approval ratings over his tenure. 

In 1993, he started the famous Tent City for inmates. He has brought many changes to the jail system in Maricopa County. Along with his male chain gang, he created the first juvenile and female chain gangs. These chain gangs clean the streets and paint graffiti. The chain gangs are still used around the City of Phoenix and Maricopa County as of 2013.

He’s made changes that some find intolerable. When he heard that the boxers provided by the jail were being stolen by leaving inmates, he had them all dyed pink. He took away coffee, salt and pepper which saved over half a million dollars annually from the prison budget.

History of Tent City
Tent City was created in 1993 by Sheriff Joe Arpaio when he decided that he would not release inmates because of jail overcrowding. He got his hands on some surplus army tents and set up an area outside one of the county’s prisons. The jail currently has the ability to house 2,126 inmates. 

Overcrowding had become such an issue in the Maricopa Country prison system that inmates were consistently released to relieve pressure on the issue. A study in 1993 reported that the estimated cost of a new prison would be millions of dollars. Instead, the sheriff decided that if military tents were good enough for soldiers, they were good enough for prisoners. 

Cost of Tent City
The cost of Tent City was initially minimal. The tents were donated from the United States armed forces and didn’t cost the county any money. The cement pads, fencing and electric costs were reportedly around $100,000. The labor was provided by the inmates at no cost to the taxpayers. 

In the years since its initial construction, four towers have been added. Stun fences have been constructed around the perimeter along with K-9 patrol units and more deputies. The Tent City system does not allow dangerous predators, so there is a new computer system that has facial recognition software to keep out the dangerous individuals. 

Years of Operation
Tent City has been in operation since 1993 when Sheriff Joe came up with his radical concept. There have been numerous lawsuits over the years relating to the conditions that the inmates face when housed in Tent City but as of now, none have been very successful.

David Michael Cantor is an Arizona Criminal Lawyer practicing in Maricopa County. David has been a criminal defense attorney since 1989 and has over 1,000 case victories in Arizona. For more information regarding Criminal Defense in Arizona, please see our website.

About the author
Andreas co-founded Xavier Media® in 1996 and has since been involved in all kinds of development, marketing and making money online.