Former NBA all-star Charles Barkley should be getting out of an Arizona jail tomorrow, following his three-day stint for drunken driving in Scottsdale on New Year’s Eve. He’s been serving his term in Arizona’s notorious Tent City, where Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America” rules with an iron fist. “I’m an equal incarcerator,” Arpaio said of Barkley, who spent the past couple days in one of the tents. “We don’t discriminate.” Arpaio is known for issuing inmates cartoonish, black-and-white-striped jailbird suits, linking them together on chain gangs and forcing them to sleep in tents. Barkley was spared the stripes and the chain gang, given a blue and red sweatsuit instead. Reporters who showed up at a brief but wide-ranging news conference on Saturday tried to reconcile Arpaio’s “don’t discriminate” comment with the fact that Barkley was afforded much hipper attire than the average inmate. “None of the work-release people do that,” Barkley snapped. “But if y’all really, really want to put me as low as I can go, I can do that and make you feel better. I know when [someone is] famous, you like to see people humiliated.” The 45-year-old Barkley acknowledged, however, that he had “screwed up” and was getting what he deserved. “I don’t blame anybody but myself,” he said. He actually was supposed to serve 10 days, but the term was reduced because he attended an alcohol program. When Arpaio released a book some years ago, Barkley endorsed it on the back. “This man, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is a role model for all Americans,” Barkley wrote in the blurb.

 EX NBA baller Charles Barkley has hired a criminal defense attorney to navigate him through his drunken-driving case from his arrest Wednesday in Arizona. Attorney Scott Maasen has “launched an independent investigation into the case and managed to get the basketball star to finally talk about it,” TMZ.com reported.  In a statement released Monday, Maasen said, “Mr. Barkley, who has no prior DUI convictions, believes wholeheartedly in the court system and is cooperating fully with the court’s process. Mr. Barkley wishes to thank family, friends and his ardent fans for their tremendous outpouring of support during this difficult time.” Barkley is set to appear in court on Jan. 20.