Chain Gang

The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. There are over 2.3 million people within prison systems in the U.S. This is a photographic project on the chain gangs that have been institutionalized as part of a prison system at Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix Arizona by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The inmates are used for menial labor. In one day they pick and gather five tons of fruit from a private farm. The next day they may be clearing public highways. The work never stops, and once a week they bury dead homeless indigents at a cemetery forty miles from Phoenix. All of this is free labor done in chains and sanctioned by the state. This form of incarceration performs like a commercial enterprise and it is only a tiny part of America's disturbing and unsustainable prison population. This project reveals the human face, emotions and psychology of the inmates. Watch the film at ..... scotthoustonphoto.com