Chain gangs essays

Chain gangs essays Chain gangs have been around for a longtime, and are still within our prison systems today. Chain gangs are groups of prisoners set to work for the city or state as a punishment during their stay in prison, with jobs such as trash cleanup, or, back when chain gangs were first invented, building train tracks, and every other job in between. The name chain gang comes from the chaining of the prisoners, to reduce the chance of escape, while they were working outside of the prison walls. Employees of the prisons, called leasees, were in charge of the inmates, often armed with a weapon of some kind in case of a retreat attempt, or an attempt of the prisoners to brawl with the guards. The prisoners living arrangements were often unsanitary, crowded, and poorly constructed. These bad conditions of living often gave people a misinterpreted view of chain gangs. The first chain gangs began in England and the northern part of the United States during the eighteenth century. Even though chain gangs were legal in almost every state, the South seemed to be the only region using them. Some reasons for this include the bad climate of the North and the publics thoughts against chain gangs. Another reason why we see the South as the source of chain gangs is because it was the region that needed them the most. The South used chain gangs because after the Civil War there was a labor shortage. The labor shortage and an escalation in crime caused the South to begin leasing out convict labor. That is why most of the states in the South had convict labor by 1875. The most common workers of the chain gang were county inmates who worked on the roads. A large amount of repairs was needed to mend the roads that were destroyed during the war. Many convicts were also leased out to farms in the South to replace the slaves who were freed because of the Civil Wa r. Nobody cared that chain gangs were humiliating and de...