A chain gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging labor, such as chipping stone, often along a highway or rail bed. This system existed primarily in the United States, and by 1955, had been phased out of use nationwide. However, some states reintroduced the chain gang system beginning in the 1990s, and nations other than the U.S. have used it in the past.

Synonyms and disambiguation

A single ankle shackle with a short length of chain attached to a heavy ball is known as a ball and chain and was meant to limit prisoner movement and impede escape.

Two ankle shackles attached to each other by a short length of chain are known as a hobble or as leg irons. These could be chained to a much longer chain with several other prisoners, creating a work crew known as a chain gang. The walk required to avoid tripping while in leg irons is known as the convict shuffle.

A group of prisoners working outside prison walls under close supervision, but without chains, is a work gang. Their distinctive attire (stripe wear or orange vests or jumpsuits) serves the purpose of displaying their punishment to the public, as well as making them easily identifiable if they attempt to escape. Whatever deterrent effect that may have on potential criminals, the lack of actual chains makes a modern work gang much safer than a traditional chain gang.

The use of chains could be extremely hazardous. Some of the chains used in the Georgia system in the first half of the twentieth century weighed twenty pounds. Some prisoners suffered from shackle sores — ulcers where the iron ground against their skin. Gangrene and other infections were serious risks. Falls could imperil several individuals at once.

Modern prisoners are sometimes put into handcuffs or wrist manacles (similar to handcuffs, but with a longer length of chain) and leg irons, with both sets of manacles (wrist and ankle) being chained to a belly chain. This form of restraint is most often used on prisoners expected to be violent, or prisoners appearing in a setting where they may be near the public (a courthouse) or have an opportunity to flee (being transferred from a prison to a court). Although prisoners in these restraints are sometimes chained to one another during transport or other movement, this is not a chain gang — although reporters may refer to it as such — because the restraints make any kind of work impossible. Prisoners restrained this way may have their hands chained so close to the waist that they cannot use a pen, or touch their own faces; they cannot work.

History of chain gangs

Various claims as to the purpose of chain gangs have been offered, some unsubstantiated. These include:

• Punitive punishment,
• Societal restitution for the cost of housing, feeding, and guarding the inmnates. The money earned by work performed goes to offset prison expenses by providing a large workforce at no cost for government projects, and at minimal convict leasing cost for private businesses.
• A way of perpetuating African-American slavery after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ended slavery^[1],
• Reducing inmates' idleness ,
• To serve as a deterrent to crime as well as satisfy the needs of politicians to appear "tough on crime" .

The use of chain gangs in the United States generally ended in 1955. Chain gangs experienced a resurgence when Alabama began to use them again in 1995<ref name="chain-slavery" />.

Reintroduction and criticisms

Some jurisdictions, such as Alabama and Arizona, have re-introduced the chain gang. In recent years, Maricopa County, Arizona, which is the county that covers Phoenix, Arizona, and its controversial sheriff Joe Arpaio, has drawn attention from human rights groups for its use of chain gangs for both men and women. Arizona's modern chain gangs, rather than chipping rocks or other non-productive tasks, often do real work of economic benefit to a correctional department. Opponents note that the gangs often work outside in oppressive desert heat; others note that participation in Maricopa County's chain gangs is voluntary, not mandatory, and that everyone else who does outdoor work there must do so in heat as well.

A year after reintroducing the chain gang in 1995, Alabama was forced to again abandon the practice pending a lawsuit from, among other organizations, the Southern Poverty Law Center. "They realized that chaining them together was inefficient; that it was unsafe," said attorney Richard Cohen of the organization. However, as late as 2000, Alabama Prison Commissioner, Ron Jones has again proposed reintroducing the chain gang. Like historical chain gangs, their reintroduced cousins have been compared to slavery in academic circles.^[2]

Culture

Wrestling

John Cena refers to his fans as part of 'The Chain Gang'.

Motion pictures

• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang was an award-winning movie released in 1932, which depicted the degrading and inhumane treatment on chain gangs in the post-World War I era.
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? featured chain gangs.
• Cool Hand Luke
• American Chain Gang is a 1999 is documentary about male and female inmates in the recently revived prison chain gangs.
• Life - Starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence and features them working on a chain gang.
• The Last Hard Men - The beginning scene features James Coburn escaping from a chain gang.
• The Green Mile - This acclaimed film features brief opening shots of a chain gang during the 1930s.
• The Longest Yard
• Robin Hood (Disney)
• The Defiant Ones

The Simpsons - Upon accidentally killing 'Captain Jack' (the florida state mascot - an alligator) The Simpsons family get arrested and put in a chain gang.

Music

• In the circa 1947, Woody Guthrie, Alec Seward, and Sonny Terry recorded several chain gang related songs including including "Chain Gang Special," and several other older songs adapted to having chain gang themes They were released on the Cleopatra compilation Best Of The War Years. Guthrie had previously written other chain gang songs also, including "Chain Around My Leg" which was released on the Library Of Congress Recordings.
• Legendary soul singer Sam Cooke recorded a hit song in the 1960's called Chain Gang (also covered by Otis Redding).
• Back on the Chain Gang is a popular song from the Pretenders album Learning to Crawl.
• Work Song written by Oscar Brown, Jr, Nat Adderley and recorded by Nina Simone on the albums Forbidden Fruit (1961) and High Priestess of Soul (1967). It tells the story of someone sentenced to 5 years on a chain gang.
• Chain Gang was written and performed by Johnny Cash.
• Danish noise rock n roll duo The Raveonettes recorded an album entitled Chain Gang of Love in 2002.
• Scissor Sisters mentions chain gangs in the chorus of the song Everybody Wants the Same Thing from their second album Ta-Dah.
• Skid Row (heavy metal band) recorded "Livin' on a Chain Gang" for their second album Slave to the Grind in 1991.

Dance

• "Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" is a modern dance piece choereographed by Donald McKayle about chain gangs.

Further reading

• Burns, Robert E. I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! University of Georgia Press; Brown Thrasher Ed edition (October 1997; original copyright, late 1920's). ISBN 0820319430. Autobiography on which movie of the same name was based; best-seller responsible for exposing abuses of Southern chain gang system to national readership, leading to their termination.
• Colvin, Mark. Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth-Century America. Palgrave Macmillan (2000). ISBN: 0312221282.
• Lichtenstein, Alex. Twice the Work of Free Labor: The Political Economy of Convict Labor in the New South. Verso (1995). ISBN: 1859840868.
• Mancini, Matthew J. One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the American South, 1866-1928. University of South Carolina Press (1996). ISBN: 1570030839.
• Oshinsky, David M. Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. (1997). ISBN: 0684830957.
• Curtin, Mary Ellen. Black Prisoners and Their World : Alabama, 1865-1900. University of Virginia Press (2000). ISBN: 0813919843

External links

• Movie of chain gang in Charleston, South Carolina; circa 1904
• The Labour of Doing Time

References