Don't get a DUI, but REALLY don't get a DUI in Arizona

[jetsetter]

Driving under the influence is among the more common criminal violations in Arizona. All types of people are arrested for DUI: hard working people,college students and habitual troublemakers. Nearly every person that’s arrested for DUI in Arizona are honest, hard-working people just like you and me.

Once you’ve been found guilty of a DUI, the judge will schedule a time for your prison term. Virtually everybody will be subject to mandatory time at Tent City. Although, a good attorney possibly may be able to arrange for you to serve your time in city jail instead. Your court documents will specify the date and time that your prison term will start. If for some reason they do not, you need to contact the court ASAP. Don’t just head over to the jail without a court ordered date and time, because if your court documents don’t designate a time, the police officers will not know when to let you leave and an prolonged jail stay may be necessary. Many courts will let you to pick out the date and time that you want your prison term to start (six o’clock in the morning is normally the best time to go).

Once you make it to the self surrender gate, you will in all likelihood see a bunch of people waiting to get in. The sign on the gate should say that new arrivals will be brought in once every hour. Although, this is generally not the case. On a lot of occasions, newcomers are forced to wait hours prior to being allowed inside the jail. If your court orders that your prison term begins at 9:00 am then the clock starts ticking at 9:00 am no matter whether you are permitted to enter the jail or not. Honestly, waiting outside the gate is a great deal better then waiting inside (one of the reasons why it is better to get an early start).

Role call is taken and each new inmate is searched and cuffed prior to entering the processing area. Inmates are allowed to bring the following items:

1) A Non-Pornographic Magazine or paperback book
2) Toothpaste and a Toothbrush
3) A Non-Electrical Alarm Clock
4) A Flashlight
5) $10

When inside “newbies” or new inmates must await processing, which includes general questioning, fingerprinting and mugshots. Cuffs are taken off and brand-new inmates are placed in one of a half a dozen holding cells. These holding cells range in size from ten foot by five foot to ten foot by ten foot. Inmates are packed like sardines into these tiny rooms. It’s not unusual for thirty inmates to be crammed in a five foot by ten foot cell. A couple of fortunate inmates will be able to sit down on the bench that lines the parameter while most will need to stand. A few of the holding cells do have toilets although just about everyone would in all likelihood rather hold it then go in front of thirty strangers in a jam packed room. Waiting in these rooms isn’t pleasant. As a matter of fact, a lot of people think that this procedure is inhumane. The doors are closed and little air is able to gain entrance through a small slot in the door. Inmates might be required to wait inside these rooms for 12-15 hours commonly without food or water. Over time the tiny glass window will fog up from all the sweat that has evaporated into the air, which also causes breathing to become difficult. The corrections officers draw out the process by taking fingerprints and mugshots separately. This along with shift changes and the occasional distraction makes the process take far longer then necessary. From time-time the inmates may attempt to get the officers attention by knocking on the door or writing help on the fogged up glass. Every now and then, an police officer might open the door up for a short time period so that fresh air can be allowed into the cell. At some point, medical forms are handed out, completed, and collect although it is unlikely that they’re reviewed. If you’ve got a medical condition that would complicate your stay in the holding cell, you might be placed in the “hole” as an alternative. Inmates are oftentimes removed from Tent City on stretchers.

After each group of “entrants” have been processed, each inmate is given an I.D. card, cuffed and taken to the tents. Inmates that have not eaten dinner will be given dinner at the tents. Meals generally consist of lunchmeat sandwiches, fruit, and milk. Sheriff Joe’s green meat is another favorite. At the tents, newbies will be called individually and given a thin blanket and a little pink towel. The I.D. cards have the tent and bunk assignment on the back. Tent City consists of around 20 former army tents each containing about 30 bunk beds. A few of the bunks have a thin pad others are just metal. Inmates can take a pad from a vacant bed if their bed doesn’t have one.

Inmates are allowed to wander around Tent City except during “lock downs” and “head counts” when all inmates are required to go back to their tents. Inmates at Tent City for DUI do wear their street cloths. Inside Tent City there are a a couple of vending machines (with food and shower products) that only take coins, washing machines, a handful of pay phones, a shower room, a few drinking fountains, a restroom without dividers between the stalls, and a tent that has a small television set. Sheriff Joe requires all inmates to be clean-shaven. Moreover, inmates with hair length below the ear will be required to cut their hair or be forced to go to the “hole”.

All through the night there’s constant commotion at Tent City making it hard for anybody to sleep. “Newbies” arrive at all hours, announcements are blasted from the loud speakers, head counts are conducted and of course inmates can be noisy themselves. Inmates on work release programs are required to clean the bathrooms in the morning before leaving Tent City for the day. Those on work release are able to leave and return without too many hassles and are allowed some additional personal items.

“Kickouts” or inmates who have served their sentence are called throughout the day. The kickout process is like to the initial processing. Inmates are handcuffed and returned to the processing room where they’re crammed back into the holding cells. Here the inmates wait to be fingerprinted once again. After all the kickouts have been fingerprinted, they’re called one-by-one, asked a few simple questions, cuffed, and lined up at the exit. Next, the inmates are walked outside the processing area and released. The corrections police officers make certain that the kickout process takes a long time. Inmates might not be released for hours after the court ordered time.

A visit to Tent City is supposed to be so horrifying of an experience that inmates will learn their lesson and not break the law again. The lesson to be learned is do not Drink and Drive in Arizona.

http://arizonaduilaws.info/blog/?p=18

Prior to the election of Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 1993, the prisoner population in Maricopa County Jail, Arizona, the 4th largest jail system in the world, exceeded the maximum number of inmates allowed in its facilities. Prisoners were routinely released from custody prior to completing their sentence due to the overcrowding. In a study conducted in 1993 it was estimated that construction of a new facility would cost approximately $70,000,000. Sheriff Arpaio, concerned about the cost of a new facility and reasoning that military tents were good enough for the men and women of the U.S. armed forces who fought in Operation Desert Storm, ordered that a Tent Jail be constructed utilizing inmate labor. It consisted of Korean War era tents donated by the U.S. Military, and a 50 ft. (15.4 meter) observation tower with a vacancy sign mounted on the front. The final cost of the project was approximately $100,000 and it is capable of housing over 2400 Inmates.[citation needed]

All inmates housed outside in the tents (N yard for the males and O yard for the females) are "volunteers" in the "Working Inmate Program" and must agree to work an assigned job and comply with the Sheriff's grooming standards. Inmates who decline to work or refuse to groom themselves are relocated inside a hardened facility along with the rest of the prison population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent_Ci...l_Modification

It's nice to know that at least in Arizona punishment is taken seriously.

[Viper007Bond]

What a coincidence. A rerun of an episode of COPS from the 90's literally just finished airing that featured that Sheriff.

[Cobol74]

Shit no Porn? /Sarcasm

Sorry DUI = go to gaol, no get out of gaol free card, you are in charge of a motor vehicle that can kill, you should at all times be capable of controlling same- Arizona FTW.

[KaJuN]

Go Arizona! It boggles my mind to think we're trying to crack down on drunk driving, yet the punishments for it in most places are ridiculously light. I remember hearing of a middle-aged drunk driver killing two college students. It was his twelfth offense. How the hell was he allowed to walk as a free man after eleven prior offenses?

Although if I were running that camp there wouldn't be any phones, magazines, books, or televisions allowed. You're in there because you did something that could well have ended an innocent person's life so why should you be allowed to have any enjoyment out of the experience?

If MADD was to be believed you would think that camp would be full of 18-21 year olds but the photos show quite the opposite. Hey Mothers, maybe it's time to check your statistics and support something that actually reduces drunk driving instead of just blaming the problem on young people.

[Hidden_Hunter]

Wow, do we think that writer has been busted for DUI or what? They talk like it's an ok thing to do

[Firecat]

I like this. Any idea if it has been successful in curbing drunk driving?

[katwalk]

Excellent
I approve of this.
Also they should have to have a free carwash where they scrub my car down with a toothbrush

[bafranksbro]

^I don't know I think they should have to wash mine and reattach the trim also.

For reference, my car.

[TomCat]

Originally Posted by Firecat

I like this. Any idea if it has been successful in curbing drunk driving?

Nope. I hear tent city is a blast! Woot!

Great weather for it too.

[cdbob]

The biggest problem in cracking down on this is numbers, the police right now are greatly understaffed. For the most part they are too busy trying to be everywhere at once. This is a really good measure though, once you crack the whip people usually start to fall into place. Its nice to know that theres somewhere this is taken seriously, it seems most places it is something that this is taken to be much too minor an offense and is easily repeatable resulting in loss of life. Thumbs up Arizona.

[emil_t]

is this possible at ANY ammount of alcohol ?

[jayhawk]

Originally Posted by emil_t

is this possible at ANY ammount of alcohol ?

No; the now federal limit for blood alcohol content is 8% So, if you have two beers and then drive a 1/2 hour later, you will be under the limit. But, it is really restrictive, I remember when Wisconsin's limit was 10%, and that was considered strict, and Wisconsin is full of drunks.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by jayhawk

No; the now federal limit for blood alcohol content is 8% So, if you have two beers and then drive a 1/2 hour later, you will be under the limit. But, it is really restrictive, I remember when Wisconsin's limit was 10%, and that was considered strict, and Wisconsin is full of drunks.

Uh, I think you'd be pretty dead if your blood alcohol was 8-10%.

The legal limit is 0.08%.

[Cobol74]

No, Viper Jays got remarkable powers of recovery!

[Ford Prefect]

awesome! driving drunk is stupid, and if you do it you deserve to be punished...

over here if you´re over a certain limit, you pay a ridiculously low fine, after a while you get to take the so called "idiot-test", and then you do your drivers license again, from scratch... and while I think that this is absolutely hilarious, and I make a big point of making massive fun of anyone who has to go through it, I still think it just isn´t harsh enough...

as far as I´m concerned, the best punishment would simply be to ban repeat offenders from driving cars alltogether...

[H0nzik]

0.08% is a very reasonable limit. I'm not sure whether there still is a country in Europe where it's as generous. Here, there's unfortunately a zero tolereance, even though the case will mostly be shelved if you have below 0.02%. Everything else results in a driving ban for 1 or 2 years and about 1-2000 EUR fine. More than 0.1% may get you in jail for 2 years but people usually only get into jail if they ignore the driving ban. I think it's generally a bit harsh, if you have one or two beers within the period of several hours, I think you really are good to drive but you would probably still have more than 0.00%