PHOENIX (AP) – The new sheriff of metro Phoenix announced Tuesday that he’s closing down a complex of jail tents that helped make his predecessor, Joe Arpaio, a national law enforcement figure.
The decision by Sheriff Paul Penzone to close the nearly 24-year-old Tent City complex will undo a critical piece of Arpaio’s political legacy. He is already phasing out Arpaio’s signature practice of making inmates wear pink underwear.
“This facility became more of a circus atmosphere for the general public. Starting today, that circus ends,” said Penzone, who plans to move half of Tent City’s inmates to other jails within 45 to 60 days and complete the closure within six months.
Despite the complex’s reputation for being a miserable place to serve time, Penzone said most inmates preferred the outdoor setting because they weren’t confined most of the day in 6-foot-by-8-foot indoor cells and instead were able to move around freely within the complex and pass much of their time in a nearby air-conditioned room.
Arpaio opened Tent City in 1993 as a way of easing jail overcrowding. The barbed-wire-surrounded compound was part of a broader campaign by Arpaio to enact get-tough measures in his jails, such as banning cigarettes, creating inmate chain gangs and dressing them in old-time striped prison uniforms.