DIDN'T you just love 'Ruby's American Pie' on TV on Sunday?

Comedienne Ruby Wax went to Arizona to meet the Sheriff of the USA's toughest jail, where inmates have to pay for rotten food, live in tents, join chanting chain gangs and bury unwanted bodies. Yes!

Berated for his tough and inhumane attitude the 'equal opportunities incarcerator' hit back 'This is a jail not a hotel. I'm a cop not a social worker. I don't study psychology. You don't need a degree to run a jail, just common sense.'

The women's chain gang, made up of former pack members, addicts, etc shuffled along eight to nine miles of the main highways ridding it of litter. Something I'd like to see on Leigh by-pass.

But, wrecks that they were, they all vowed they would never commit crime again. In fact ,they said the chain gang had helped them build up self esteem.

Pity there's no 'Sheriff Joes' here to give our no-good criminal fraternity the tough, not kid glove, treatment they deserve.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.