PHOENIX — Tent City, the outdoor jail that stood as the last remaining symbol of Joe Arpaio’s long, turbulent tenure as sheriff of Maricopa County, will close in the coming weeks, Mr. Arpaio’s successor, Sheriff Paul Penzone, said on Tuesday.

“Starting today, the circus ends, and the tents come down,” Sheriff Penzone said.

The jail, where inmates wore striped jumpsuits and pink underwear and slept in 70 surplus Korean War tents, became an effective and telegenic publicity tool for Mr. Arpaio. His unforgiving tough-on-crime stance and his pursuit of illegal immigrants propelled him to re-election five times, but also thrust him into lawsuits and controversy.

The facility opened in 1993 under the pretense that it would save money while turning the desert’s broiling summer into an element of punishment. In the end, it did neither, Sheriff Penzone said. Tent City never held more than 1,700 prisoners, and in recent years, it housed no more than 800. But the cost of operating the jail did not change significantly as its population declined; the same number of guards were needed to patrol its seven-acre campus.

Inmates said they liked being outdoors, despite the heat, the meatless meals served twice a day, the pink underwear and the spectacle that they became under Mr. Arpaio, who rarely turned down a reporter’s request to visit the jail. Guards were the ones who suffered, Sheriff Penzone said, having to wear bulletproof vests and work long hours outside in the heat and the rain.