Hard Time

Hard Time

Life with Sheriff Joe Arpaio in America's Toughest Jail
Introduction by Anne Mini
Foreword by Tony Papa


Shaun Attwood was a millionaire day trader in Phoenix, Arizona, but his hedonistic lifestyle of drugs and parties came to an abrupt end in 2002 when a SWAT team broke down his door. Attwood found himself on remand in Maricopa Jail with a $750,000 cash bond and all of his assets seized. The nightmare was only just beginning as he was submerged in a jail in which rival gangs vied for control, crystal meth was freely available, and where breaking rules could result in beatings or death. Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails have the highest death rate in the U.S. Hard Time is the harrowing yet darkly humorous account of the time Attwood spent submerged in a nightmarish world of gang violence and insect infested cells, eating food unfit for animals. His remarkable story provides a revealing glimpse into the tragedy, brutality, comedy, and eccentricity of prison life.

Tony Papa

Anthony “Tony” Papa is an activist and the author of 15 to Life. Papa was given a fifteen-year sentence to Sing-Sing, New York State’s maximum-security prison, after being convicted of his first drug offense. In prison he discovered painting, and when the Whitney Museum exhibited one of his paintings, Governor Pataki got wind of his case, and after twelve hard years of time, Anthony Papa was granted clemency. Papa now works for the Drug Policy Alliance as a communications specialist. His work to change the Rockefeller drug laws has been covered in Newsweek and Time magazine. A movie depicting his life story is in production. Susan Sarandon says: “[Papa’s] story puts a human face on the nearly one million nonviolent drug offenders confined in prisons throughout the country.”






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