THERE have been too many stories lately of prisoners in British jails suing the authorities because their rights have been abused in some way or other.

A prisoner in Oxfordshire was granted legal aid to sue for damages when he fell from his top bunk sustaining a cut. An armed robber won £2,450 in 2004 after claiming he suffered an outbreak of eczema while slopping out at Barlinnie prison in Glasgow. This year, prisoners sued the Home Office, claiming that the drug withdrawal treatment they were put through amounted to assault because they did not consent to it.

You will possibly, like me, be appalled to learn that compensation payments to prisoners have recently doubled from £2.19m in 2004-05 to £4m in 2005-06.

Contrast this with the treatment meted out to prisoners in Maricopa County, Arizona, where elected Sheriff Joe Arpaio has created what he describes as a "tent city jail".

The prisoners live in tents in a barbed wire compound in the desert. Sheriff Arpaio has no trouble getting re-elected because the law-abiding citizens of Maricopa heartily approve of his regime, which is designed to discourage the convicted criminal from re-offending.

He started chain gangs, so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. He has got the cost of their meals down to 40 cents and charges the inmates accordingly.

He has banned coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them: "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."

There's no smoking allowed, no working out with weights. He took away cable television. When told that cable TV for jails was required by federal law, he reinstated it - but just Disney and the weather channel.

He justified the latter choice saying that it was "So they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs."

The prison garb is pink. Pink shirts, pink shorts, socks, even pink towels.

When inmates complained that it was inhumane to make them live in tents in temperatures that regularly exceeded 100 degrees, Arpaio responded uncompromisingly: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!"

Sheriff Arpaio, I salute you. Occasionally, just occasionally, we can learn a thing or two from our transatlantic allies.