Bound in one chain: prisoner everyday life of female prisoners in one of the US prisons

In the United States in Phoenix, Arizona, there is a prison called Estrella. She is very well known for being the only one in the United States that uses a punishment program called the Chain Gang to rehabilitate female prisoners. In simple terms, it involves the joint performance by the prisoners of menial and unskilled work, in the process of which they find themselves bound together by a long chain.

(Total 38 photos)

Source: JJournal/tipolog

In general, this system was traditional for the southern states of the USA in the 19th and first half of the 20th century, and in 1955 it was canceled 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 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 concessions should be made to anyone.

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 those female prisoners who are serving their sentences for 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 female prisoners choose for themselves the punishment in the form of shackling with one chain and free community service in an exclusively voluntary manner. The reasons that motivate many American convicts to make this choice are very simple. According to the verdicts of the courts, despite the rather short terms of imprisonment, most of them are assigned harsh conditions for serving their sentences (something like punishment cells, to put it in the Russian manner). This regime of punishment presupposes the obligatory wearing of striped prison robes, the non-exit stay of prisoners in 2-4 local cells for 23 hours a day and meager 2 meals a day. Prisoners are also forbidden to have salt, cigarettes, coffee, ketchup and mirrors, listen to music and watch TV (with the exception of programs about the weather and how to cook delicious food), and for any trip to the nurse they must pay 10 dollars and see to them on a date with relatives exclusively through glass. The whole trick in this case lies in the fact that after serving the 30-day period of voluntary chaining and doing community service free of charge, convicted women receive special certificates, and with it the right to relocate to a general tent camp with a lighter regime for further serving the sentence.

In turn, the Chain Gang system itself involves shackling 5 prisoners in one long chain and jointly performing such work as garbage collection along roadsides, mowing weeds in wastelands (in the local 40-45 degree heat) and burying the corpses of homeless people in the city cemetery. And the main purpose of using such a system of punishment, according to the head of this prison, is to accustom short-sighted prisoners to discipline and organization in their actions and forever discourage them from ever committing offenses again in their lives.

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

2. Rise of prisoners

3. Before you start washing ...

4. Two already experienced prisoners help the new girl to 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 receiving camping 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 fasten chains on the legs of escorted women

8. At the command of the guards, the prisoners take a place at a certain distance from each other, in order to then withstand it in the process of movement

9. Women prisoners who agreed to join the process of performing public works in shackles, before leaving, daily pass by a corral with a cluster of convicts driven there for 1 hour, who have not yet matured before taking 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, the prisoners were charged with the duty to move in formation with a loud choral utterance of slogans urging them on

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

12. Boarding the prison bus

13. On the way to work

14. Disembarkation of prisoners from the prison bus

15. During the mandatory briefing before starting work

16. Arrangement of the workforce for individual areas of work

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

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

19. A short break during work to clean work tools and drink water

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

21. The line of prisoners in the mobile toilet

22. General construction after the completion of the process of administration of 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 another deceased ...

25. Female 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 earth over the grave

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

29. The process of the return escort of a group of American convicts from their place of work to the place of boarding the prison bus

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

31. Putting yourself in order and cleaning work boots immediately after returning to prison territory

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

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

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

35. Slightly rested female prisoners slowly walk around the prison yard.

36. Despite everything, life still goes on - the prisoners take turns giving each other massages and simple cosmetic procedures

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

38. And also, whenever the opportunity arises, they themselves are photographed in all their not-so-sightly glory