Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopo County, Arizona—represented in the media as “the toughest sheriff in America”—held a press conference to announce that because he was “an equal opportunity incarcerator,” he was establishing the country’s first female chain gang.93 When the plan was implemented, newspapers throughout the country carried a photograph of chained women cleaning Phoenix’s streets. Even though this may have been a publicity stunt designed to bolster the fame of Sheriff Arpaio, the fact that this women’s chain gang emerged against the backdrop of a generalized increase in the
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