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Today, 09 February 2010

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Yesterday, 08 February 2010

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A $1.38-billion lawsuit has been filed against the sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona for his use of jail webcams that showed female inmates using the toilet. The sheriff - Joe Arpaio - who has been dubbed "the nation's toughest sheriff", has been accused of sexist behaviour and mistreatment of women.

One month ago we ran a story on Arpaio's webcams, in which we revealed that inmates rights groups were crying foul over the use of four webcams at the Maricopa County Madison Street jail. One of the cameras was set up opposite the female toilets, and millions of Internet viewers were able to log on and view the female inmates using it. The camera had been removed by then, because of the uproar it caused, although the sheriff's office declared it was merely "out of alignment."

Since then another camera has been added to replace the toilet-cam, and Internet surfers can log on to Crime.com and view them for free. It has been estimated that 55 000 criminals have been caught and taken to Arpaio's jail since the cameras were erected in November 2000. The cameras cover a holding cell, the pre-intake, the search cell and the holding cell area.

The lawsuit was filed on Friday, and in it Arpaio is accused of violating state law by using cameras in his jail for reasons other than security.

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It maintains that Arpaio is sexist in his behaviour, and treats female inmates poorly. Furthermore, it is asking for $25 000 per person who was featured on the webcams.

Arpaio maintains that he makes no profit from the webcams - the point of them is to keep people informed of what he is doing, and to deter future criminals. Crime.com features a video of Arpaio called Meet Sheriff Joe, the description of which reads: "It's his jail and he's proud of it. Spend a day in the life of Sheriff Joe Arpaio on his own turf, where inmates wear pink underwear, eat green bologna and work on chain gangs."

In the video Arpaio makes his intentions clear: "I want to send a message. I don't want jail to be nice. I don't want people to live better in jail."

Fair enough - but do you have to film female inmates going to the toilet, Joe? Or is that simply a little side perversion? Only the lawsuit will tell.

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