Tough Sheriff Puts Women in Chain Gang
Calling himself an equal opportunity incarcerator, the man known as America’s toughest sheriff put the nation’s first female chain gang to work Thursday picking up trash and pulling weeds along downtown streets.
Shackled at the ankles in groups of five, 15 women wearing orange jumpsuits and caps worked in the morning sun as passing rush-hour motorists blared their horns.
“I don’t believe in discrimination in my jail system. Crime knows no gender and neither should punishment,” Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.
Critics said it was a publicity stunt. “It was a circus,” said Donna Hamm, of the prisoner rights group Middle Ground, which protested on the cleanup route.
The inmates didn’t seem to mind.
Rebecca Lopez, 28, said that “this chain gang isn’t so bad. At least it gets you back into the outside world for a couple hours a day.”
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