Not long ago, I visited Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Tent City in Phoenix. He started up the alfresco jail tents in 1993, shortly after he was elected for the first time. The tents are Korean War surplus material. They’ve long been criticized as inhumane. Sheriff Joe would never let a reporter visit any part of his vast jail system that’s inhumane. He’s not stupid.
Photograph by Kathy McCraine
Tent City is part of Sheriff Joe’s remarkable publicity machine. Yea, the tents are hot in the Phoenix summers. Each tent complex has its own air-cooled recreation room, though. Inmates go in these rooms to cool off, make phone calls, eat, take showers, play cards. It’s not ideal, but it’s not horrible, either. I knew I wouldn’t find mistreated inmates in any tent available to a reporter.
As I said, Sheriff Joe is not stupid.
Sheriff Joe gave me relatively free access to the O-Tents, where undocumented immigrants are bunked before they are deported. Most of the inmates are serving time for minor crimes, like DUI or making fake IDs. Once their sentences are served, they are sent back to their countries of origin. If they return to the USA, they will face re-entry after deportation charges, which are serious.
Photo by Kathy McCraine
I have a lot to say about Tent City, and the undocumented immigrants who live there, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, in my book, Illegal. It will be published by Globe Pequot Press in 2010.
Until then, here’s a taste of what’s to come via Kathy McCraine’s outstanding photography.
Glad you have the guts to give them a voice.