Well its a very similar argument which could be advanced for the reintroduction of hanging and typical knee jerk right wing populism... Yet again we see the  return of the nasty party in British Politics.

Far be it from Labour to introduce any authoritarian measures to try and compete for the "hang 'em and flog 'em" vote with the Tories.

Is your objection to the kind of treatment meted out, or to the idea of having law enforcement officers directly accountable to ordinary people (or perhaps both)?

I've seen a documentary on that sheriff and he said that many prisoners complained about the way they were treated. His response to them was "If you don't like it here then don't come back".
It sounds trite and I laughed when I heard it, but prison is (by and large) a voluntary experience - you usually have to do something to get sent there, so maybe he has a point.

Constrast this with our prisons were many prisoners turn down early release and some even try and break in... I'm not so sure that the US sheriff has his priorities wrong. 

The problem with our prisons is not that they are holiday camps. In fact, the prisoners don't really do anything, and many supporters of Prison Reform acknowledge they should do some work.

There is around enough cash to detox, educate and train 20,000 prisoners. So what has 'tough' on crime, and 'common sense' attitudes on law and order got us? 48% rehabilitation rates in 1992, which is ever decreasing, currently at just 33% success rates.

60% of young offenders are illiterate. 60% of prisons don't provide adequate training. Only 8% of prisoners do meaningful work.

There are 8,000 prisoners with schizophrenia or a delusional disorder. 1,000 jailed for selling themselves, 2,000 jailed for being too poor to pay fines, 10,000 for selling soft drugs, or possessing/taking them. 6,000 people who are in jail for not commiting any crime at all.

40% of women prisoners are in jail for shoplifting. A quarter of women jailed were in care homes, rising to a third in YOI's.

I could provide more statistics. But here's the real truth. Our suicidal jail policies, packing them until they burst, leave prisoners more likely to be raped, homeless, jobless, isolated from relatives, and just as likely to be drug-addicted or illiterate. So when people pine for even tougher solutions to our current 'crime epidemic', just remember, that every one of these current factors leaves you less safer.