When someone is convicted of a crime in Arizona and sentenced to serve time for criminal charges, they have enough to worry about. They experience enough loss. Their families are left at home without a provider and missing their loved one. They often lose their jobs. They've had to pay fines. They lose years of their lives to incarceration.

That should be sufficient consequence in order for an offender to make up for his supposed offense, shouldn't it? Certainly, no one deserves to live in fear of state workers when they are incarcerated. Whether on the street or working in a corrections facility, no one has the right to assault someone without a legally justifiable reason, such as self-defense. That's why a former Maricopa County officer is about the see himself what it is like to be behind bars.

According to news reports, colleagues of the former detention officer inspired the official investigation into his behavior. They reported suspicion that he had unnecessarily injured inmates. To support those suspicions, the state relied upon two separate videos of the officer assaulting inmates, inmates that were restrained at the times of the attacks.

The officer resigned from his post and was charged with various counts of assault. He ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts and will serve a year in the Maricopa County Jail.

Let's hope that he fares better behind bars than the inmates who were in his care. Incarceration doesn't mean all rights are lost.

Source

AZfamily.com: "Former MCSO detention officer sentenced to jail time for assaults,"Catherine Holland, Oct 21, 2011