According to a recently released study from Arizona State University's Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety, if you've been booked into a Maricopa Count jail, you're much more likely to catch a sexually transmitted disease than members of the general public.
According to the study, if you've been booked into one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jails, you're up to 80 percent more likely to catch either chlamydia or gonorrhea than Maricopa County residents who haven't done time.
In Maricopa County, 10 percent of women booked into a county jail test positive for chlamydia -- a disease for which only 0.7 percent of women who haven't been to jail test positive.
The numbers for gonorrhea are equally profound -- according to the study, 5 percent of women booked into jail test positive for gonorrhea, while only 0.1 percent of women who've never been to jail test positive.
As for the guys, the percentage of those booked into jail testing positive for either chlamydia or gonorrhea is lower than in women, but is still much higher than the average for men who haven't visited Arpaio's gulags.
In male inmates, 6.8 percent test positive for chlamydia, while only 0.3 percent of men who've never been sent to the slammer test positive.
The numbers are similar for male inmates testing positive for gonorrhea, with 4.6 percent of men booked into an MCSO jail testing positive for the disease, compared to only 0.1 percent of the general public.
The report concludes that because people booked into jail are often unemployed, they usually don't have health insurance enabling them to get rid of the curable diseases. It finds that "if screening and treatment for these STDs were more widely available in the county jail a meaningful impact could be made on the health of Maricopa County residents (due to reduced transmission rates) in general and the Maricopa County arrestee population specifically."
Click here to see the full report.