Bound in One Chain: The Everyday Life of Women Prisoners in a US Prison

She is very well known for being the only one in the United States to use a punishment program called the Chain Gang to reeducate female prisoners.

In the United States, in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, there is a prison called Estrella. She is very well known for being the only one in the United States to use a punishment program called the Chain Gang to reeducate female prisoners.

In simple terms, it involves the joint performance by prisoners of black and unskilled work, in the process of which they find themselves shackled together by a long chain.

In general, this system was traditional for the southern states of the United States in the 19th and first half of the 20th century, and in 1955 it was abolished as inhumane and not in keeping with the spirit of the present.

However, in 1995 it began to be used again in relation to the male contingent in some prisons in the southern United States of America.

And in the Estrella prison in the city of Phoenix, they decided to go even further — to extend the system of such punishment to women on the simple basis that both women and men in the United States have equal rights and therefore no one should be given any favors.

But enough lyrical digressions — it’s time to get to the point. According to existing rules, this program is called “Last Chance” and can only be assigned to women prisoners who are serving their sentences under not very serious articles (such as drunk driving, perjury, petty fraud and theft of goods in supermarkets) and with a term no more than 1 year.

It may seem surprising to some, but the punishment in the form of being shackled in one chain and performing public works free of charge, women prisoners choose for themselves in an exclusively voluntary manner.

The reasons that lead many American prisoners to make this choice are very simple.

According to the verdicts of the courts, despite the rather short terms of imprisonment, for most of them, harsh conditions of serving their sentences are imposed (something like punishment cells, in the Russian manner).

This punishment regime presupposes the obligatory wearing of striped prison uniforms, staying out of prison in 2–4-bed cells for 23 hours a day and a meager 2 meals a day.

Prisoners are also forbidden to have salt, cigarettes, coffee, ketchup, and mirrors, listen to music and watch TV (except for programs about the weather and how to prepare delicious food), and for any trip to the nurse they must pay $ 10 and see those who come to them on a date with relatives exclusively through the glass.

The Chain Gang system itself involves shackling 5 prisoners in one long chain and jointly performing such work as cleaning garbage on the side of the roads, mowing weeds in wastelands (in the local 40–45-degree heat) and burying the bodies of homeless people in the city cemetery.

And the main purpose of using such a system of punishment, according to the governor of this prison, is to accustom short-sighted prisoners to discipline and organization in their actions and to forever discourage them from ever again committing crimes in their lives.

1. View of one of the prison cells a few minutes before the start of the morning rise

2. The rise of prisoners

3. Before you start washing …

4. Two already experienced prisoners help the new girl to properly roll up her sleeves before the start of the working day.

5. Standing in line before starting the process of putting on heavy boots and getting hiking equipment (in the form of a baseball cap, work gloves, and a pouch with a water bottle)

6. Movement in a column to the place of shackling the prisoners in group shackles

7. Prison guards attach chains to the legs of the escorted women

8. At the command of the guards, the prisoners take a place at a certain distance from each other so that then they can maintain it in the process of movement.

9. Women prisoners who agreed to join the process of performing public works in shackles, before leaving, pass daily by the corral with a crowd of prisoners driven there for 1 hour, who are not yet ripe to take such a step or simply persist in their unwillingness to go to work in this way

10. In the process of group movement around the courtyard of the prison, prisoners are obliged to move in formation with a loud choral utterance of chants urging them on.

11. View of the legs of a column of moving prisoners, imprisoned in group shackles

12. Boarding the prison bus

13. In the process of driving to the place of work

14. Disembarking prisoners from the prison bus

15. During the mandatory briefing before starting work

16. Allocation of the workforce in separate areas of work

17. And this is how the process of cleaning the garbage from roadside shoulders from a closer distance looks like ..

18. … and often it is carried out in 40-degree heat

19. Take a short break from work to clean tools and drink some water.

20. Field outfit of prisoners in the form of a baseball cap, work gloves, and a water bottle from a closer distance

21. Prisoners’ Queue to the Mobile Toilet

22. General construction after the completion of the process of sending out natural needs

23. During the briefing before the start of work on the burial of the corpses of the homeless at the city cemetery of the city of Phoenix

24. One, two, they took and carried the next deceased …

25. Women prisoners watch the process of lowering the coffin they brought into the grave

26. Another view of the legs and shackles of the same prisoners from a closer distance

27. Prisoners throw dirt at the grave

28. A short rest after the completion of the next burial process

29. The process of returning a group of American prisoners from their place of work to the place of boarding the prison bus

30. Obligatory search and examination of personal belongings to identify anything prohibited after the final completion of work

31. Tidying up and cleaning work boots immediately after returning to the prison

32. Sitting prisoners during a daily educational lecture in the tent camp of their prison

33. And only after that you can finally rest after 8 hours of work in the sweltering heat

34. This is what a prison camp looks like from its non-parade side

35. Slightly rested female prisoners stroll slowly through the prison yard

36. In spite of everything, life still goes on — the prisoners take turns giving each other massages and the simplest cosmetic procedure

37. … and also show their new friends photos of their relatives

38. And also, at any opportunity that arises, they themselves take pictures in all their not very attractive beauty