Thread: AZ-Tent City Celebrates 15th Birthday

Tent City Celebrates 15th Birthday

KTAR.com

POSTED: 2:05 pm MST August 4, 2008
UPDATED: 2:59 pm MST August 4, 2008

PHOENIX -- Tent City is expanding. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio made the announcement today while criticizing other Valley leaders.

Arpaio celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Tent City jail by announcing that six more tents and a solar powered shower and bathroom will soon be up and running at the facility.

The sheriff claimed the new tents cost nothing.

He also used the celebration to criticize Mesa Police Chief George Gascon and Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon for their efforts to build new jails.

"With the economy being the way it is, it's just puzzling why Phoenix and Mesa would want to build their own jails and tax the taxpayers more money with the economic situation we are in," Arpaio said.

Arpaio said instead of sending teams around the country to get tips on how to build and run new jails, Gascon and Gordon should be sending them to Tent City to see how things are done.

The new tents will expanded Tent City's capacity to 2,500 inmates.

http://www.kpho.com/news/17091414/detail.html

Tent City showers going solar
August 5th, 2008 @ 6:02am
by Bob McClay/KTAR

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is going green with more than just its bologna.

A new solar powered bathroom and shower facility is part of the expansion at the Tent City jail.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio says running the county jails is just like running a city.

"The city has 10,000 inmates. And if you're running the city you try to save as much money as you can and this is just one way."

Arpaio says this is his second facility to go solar. "We did open up a beautiful brand new pistol range in Buckeye. And we've gone solar with that too. So, this is just the beginning of some of our thoughts on how we can save the environment and also save money."

The $600,000 facility is part of an expansion that is adding six tents and room for 500 more prisoners at the Tent City jail.

http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=924269