High-profile sheriff makes inmates look like pinkos

If the volunteer works hard and behaves well, he graduates back into the tents. For real -- he actually gets a diploma from Sheriff Joe. It may sound goofy, but the sheriff swears it gives some of the "graduates" a feeling of pride, accomplishment and self-worth. Proof of a sort is that fellow inmates initially razzed the chain gangs as they left or returned to jail, but now they're actually sort of respectful. Maybe it's because the guys on the gangs are celebrities. TV crews come from all over the world to film them at work.

So what about the women? "I'll have to think about it," Sheriff Joe told Insight. "But whenever I think about something, I make the headlines. Then when I do it, I make the headlines. I get double headlines." He fantasizes about how he'll probably have TV crews "coming from Mars" for this one. "Another problem is I'll need traffic cops all over the place, because everybody will be tooting their horns and stopping."

Somehow, it's not real difficult to imagine Arpaio orchestrating a media circus like that, getting his mug on TV from Zagreb to Auckland. So when can we expect to see Susy, Rosie, Michelle, Mandy and Mom clunking along the highway in the blazing desert sun, strapped together by a length of forged-steel rope? (Hey Oliver Stone: You catching this action?) The answer is the same as for any other project he concocts: Anytime that Sheriff Joe makes up his mind to do it. "The problem we have in government," he says, "is everybody is afraid to take a chance. All they do is have staff meetings, form a committee, form a task force, study -- that takes years for a decision. I make my decision in about two seconds. There's the difference."

Arpaio is something of a cynic on the matter of converting seasoned criminals to decent, law-abiding citizens. That goes to the very heart of his no-frills, get-tough policies. In the course of his career in law enforcement, including 30 years of international narcotics work, mostly undercover, he says, "The level of savagery has escalated beyond all rationale and predictability." The current criminals are "cowardly and stupid, contemptuous and vicious. Don't let anyone -- the lawyers, the media, anyone -- tell you differently."

And yet, according to the subtitle of his new book, America's Toughest Sheriff, Arpaio has a plan for "How We Can Win the War on Crime. "I say, get back to the streets and that's what my posse does, and that's what we do," he explains. "I'm not a fed anymore. I'm a sheriff, so I go right to the streets and protect the people."

Now there's a ticklish subject. What about this posse, the sheriff's merry band of around 3,000 volunteer vigilantes, some 800 of whom pack shooting irons? Isn't that kind of like having your own private militia? This is, after all, Arizona, where the governor recently threatened to call out the National Guard to open Grand Canyon National Park when the feds were taking a forced leave of absence. Confrontation of a sort that seemed unthinkable a few years ago can occur today at the drop of a Stetson.