Since first winning election as the Sheriff of Maricopa County in 1992, Joe Arpaio has cultivated an image as the "toughest sheriff in America." While Sheriff Arpaio has often been the subject of headlines and contemporary journalism, other than a handful of scholarly studies focused upon incarceration methods within Maricopa County, scant historical study has been devoted to Arpaio. The study will examine issues of race, ethnicity, conflict, and cooperation in the borderlands from the seventeenth into the twentieth centuries. Furthermore, the thesis will examine the mystique of law enforcement in the West, before finally exploring the confluence of all these factors that ultimately facilitated the rise, notoriety, and resiliency of Joe Arpaio as the Sheriff of Maricopa County. The research is taken from a combination of primary and secondary sources. The first two chapters rely heavily upon assorted secondary scholarly studies related to law enforcement in the West, race, ethnicity, and intermittent periods of conflict and cooperation in the borderlands. The final two chapters use primary sources ranging from the Arizona Republic, the Phoenix New Times, Arpaio's two autobiographies, and other periodicals to polling data culled from the Behavior Research Center to examine the tenure of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Although Sheriff Arpaio's incarceration methods and fixation to undocumented immigration has made him the center of contentious political debates since 1992, the thesis will mostly eschew those disputes. Rather, the thesis will seek to study Arpaio as a historical figure. In total, the thesis will argue factors unique to the borderlands, namely persistent questions of race, the rise of the Sunbelt, conservative politics, contemporary concerns over crime and undocumented immigration buttressed the influence and notoriety of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The life story of Joe Arpaio

Outspoken, no-nonsense, and eminently fascinating, Joseph M. Arpaio captured the public's imagination from his first day as sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, in 1992. He has become an icon, not only in his own state, but all over the world. For 15 years, he has maintained an unprecedented 80% approval rating. Famous for his “get smart and get tough” approach to jails, “Sheriff Joe,” as he is universally known, conceived The Tent City Jail where he houses his inmates in surplus army tents left over from the Korean War. Known as the “Alcatraz of Arizona,” the jail features chain gangs and stringent discipline. By eliminating all comforts for his inmates, he has managed to shave $500,000 annually from the cost of keeping prisoners. But he also offers a wide range of educational and therapeutic courses for inmates. To his ardent followers, he is a hero for both his toughness on crime and his sense of humanity. While his opponents decry him for his iron-fisted approach, no one can deny that Sheriff Joe is one of the country's most respected elected officials. Joe's Law is an uncensored look by “America's Toughest Sheriff” at some of the most important and difficult issues facing America today. As the first law enforcement official in the country to arrest illegal immigrants, Arpaio tackles illegal immigration head on—how it intertwines with drug trafficking, taxes, and crime, and how it impacts healthcare and education as well. Arpaio offers innovative and fair ways to solve this dilemma and many others, not only in his own state but throughout the country. Compelling and courageous, this is a candid take on some of America's most pressing social problems, and one man's revolutionary vision for eliminating them.

Overcrowded jails and shrinking budgets equal early release for prisoners in most communities. Not so in Maricopa County, Arizona, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio houses inmates in surplus army tents dating from the Korean War. And while summer temperatures in the desert can reach 120 degrees, Sheriff Joe reasons that if the tents were good enough for the troops of Desert Storm, they are good enough for convicted criminals. America's Toughest Sheriff is an unfiltered account of Sheriff Joe's "get smart and get tough" approach to jail. He believes that criminals should never live better in jail than they do on the outside. Called the "Alcatraz of Arizona," the Tent City Jail features discipline, hard work, and a total absence of frills. By eliminating coffee and feeding convicts sandwiches at lunch, Arpaio has shaved $500,000 annually from the cost of keeping prisoners. And that's only the beginning of the changes he has initiated on his way to achieving an 85 percent approval rating from his constituents. Citizens of the Phoenix area rave about Sheriff Joe's common-sense approach to crime, and about his creative ways to save taxpayers money. More than 2,500 residents have volunteered for his posses, performing duties from rescuing lost hikers to patrolling the malls during the holidays. His innovative leadership in law enforcement is rooted in more than 30 years' experience as a federal drug enforcement agent when he fought the drug trade in Turkey and Central America.

Joseph Michael Arpaio is a former American law enforcement officer. He was the elected Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, from 1993 through 2016.Arpaio styled himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff". Starting in 2005, he took an outspoken stance against illegal immigration. Arpaio is also known for his investigation of former U.S. President Barack Obama's birth certificate, and his continuing claim that it is forged. Arpaio has been accused of various types of police misconduct, including abuse of power; misuse of funds; failure to investigate sex crimes; improper clearance of cases; unlawful enforcement of immigration laws; and election law violations.

Shaun Attwood was a millionaire day trader in Phoenix, Arizona, but his hedonistic lifestyle of drugs and parties came to an abrupt end in 2002 when a SWAT team broke down his door. Attwood found himself on remand in Maricopa Jail with a $750,000 cash bond and all of his assets seized. The nightmare was only just beginning as he was submerged in a jail in which rival gangs vied for control, crystal meth was freely available, and where breaking rules could result in beatings or death. Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails have the highest death rate in the United States. Hard Time is the harrowing yet darkly humorous account of the time Attwood spent submerged in a nightmarish world of gang violence and insect-infested cells, eating food unfit for animals. His remarkable story provides a revealing glimpse into the tragedy, brutality, comedy, and eccentricity of prison life.

The articles in this volume of Studies in Law, Politics, and Society cover an exciting and diverse range of topics, from immigration and human rights policies to same-sex marriage and capital punishment debates.

"Latinos" are the largest group among Americans of color. At 59 million, they constitute nearly a fifth of the US population. Their number has alarmed many in government, other mainstream institutions, and the nativist right who fear the white-majority US they have known is disappearing. During the 2016 US election and after, Donald Trump has played on these fears, embracing xenophobic messages vilifying many Latin American immigrants as rapists, drug smugglers, or "gang bangers." Many share such nativist desires to build enhanced border walls and create immigration restrictions to keep Latinos of various backgrounds out. Many whites’ racist framing has also cast native-born Latinos, their language, and culture in an unfavorable light. Trump and his followers’ attacks provide a peek at the complex phenomenon of the racialization of US Latinos. This volume explores an array of racialization’s manifestations, including white mob violence, profiling by law enforcement, political disenfranchisement, whitewashed reinterpretations of Latino history and culture, and depictions of "good Latinos" as racially subservient. But subservience has never marked the Latino community, and this book includes pointed discussions of Latino resistance to racism. Additionally, the book’s scope goes beyond the United States, revealing how Latinos are racialized in yet other societies.

This unique compilation of essays and entries provides critical insights into the Latino/a experience with the U.S. criminal justice system. Concerns about immigration's relationship to crime make accurate information and critical analysis of the utmost importance. Latinos and Criminal Justice: An Encyclopedia promotes understanding of Latinas and Latinos and the U.S. criminal justice system, at the same time dispelling popular misconceptions about this population and criminal activity in the United States. Unlike a traditional encyclopedia comprised solely of A–Z entries, this work consists of two parts. Part I offers detailed essays on particularly important topics. Part II provides brief, A–Z entries. Topics are crossreferenced to enable easy research. Among the wide range of topics covered are policing and police misconduct, incarceration, the war on drugs, gangs, border crime, and racial profiling. Historically important issues and events relative to the Latino experience of criminal justice in the United States are also included, as are key legal cases.

This fully updated and expanded edition covers over 10,200 programs, making it the most comprehensive documentation of television programs ever published. In addition to covering the standard network and cable entertainment genres, the book also covers programs generally not covered elsewhere in print (or even online), including Internet series, aired and unaired pilot films, erotic series, gay and lesbian series, risque cartoons and experimental programs from 1925 through 1945.