Slavery
American Chain Gang
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Chain Gang
Wikipedia article covers Synonyms and disambiguation, History, and Reintroduction. Includes great images.
The Labor of Doing Time by Julie Browne
“Despite a chilling official silence, 1995 was a bombshell in the "war on crime." In this one year alone, 150 new
prisons were built in the United States and 171 existing prisons were expanded. This was the year the crime bill was
passed, mandating that 100,000 additional police officers be added to the already enormous law enforcement
establishment. In California, this was the first year that the state budget allocated more money for prisons than
higher education. Most astonishingly, with one short day of media attention, 1995 was the year that Alabama's
governor Fob James, and other state officials, made the callous and horrifying decision
to reinstate the nationally abolished chain gang.”
“The United States has once again surpassed its own world record for incarcerating the highest percentage of its
population. According to a report released by the Bureau of Prison Statistics, one out of every 32 adults was in prison,
in jail, on probation, or on parole at the end of 2005. But the crisis of mass incarceration is not felt evenly in the
United States: Race defines every aspect of the criminal justice system, from police targeting, to crimes charged,
and rates of conviction. African American men between the ages of 20 and 39
account for nearly one-third of all sentenced prisoners.”
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History's Mysteries - Chain Gangs (History Channel Documentary) – [Min: 42:22]