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American
Chain Gang |
Producer/Director:
Xackery Irving 6/5/2020 11:14 AM Production
Company: ChainGangPictures TRT:
54:41 |
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Lower
Thirds/ TC |
Dialogue/Audio |
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TC 00:00:00 Super: American
Chain Gang A
Film by Xackery Irving |
Blues Guitar Music |
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Title
Card: Chain
Gang prison labor was first used in America to replace the slave labor base
of the post-Civil War South |
Blues Guitar Music |
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Title
Card: Chained
24 hours a day for the duration of their sentence, many inmates were forced
to work and live in squalid, abusive conditions. |
Blues Guitar Music |
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Title
Card: In
the 1930’s, states began to re-examine this policy. By
the mid-1960’s, the last vestiges of chain gang labor had disappeared. |
Blues
Guitar Music |
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Title
Card: On
May 3, 1995, Alabama became the first state to resurrect the chain gang. |
Hip-Hop
Music |
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Title
Card: On
September 18, 1996, Arizona became the site of the first female chain gang. |
Hip-Hop
Music |
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Officer:
We do this everyday. |
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Officer:
Pull it out. |
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TC 00:02:09 Title
Card: Limestone
Correctional Facility Inmate
Checkout 6:15 AM |
Officer: Calling out Inmates name’s |
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Title
Card: Alabama
calls its chain gang “The Alternative Thinking Unit.” |
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Title
Card: It
is intended to make a stong impact on the criminal population and the general
public. |
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Title
Card: First
time offenders work alongside parole violators and repeat offenders. |
Officer: Alright. Start your deuce down here. |
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Yarbrough: Whether or not
chain gang’s are going to work, it’s way to early to tell. |
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TC 00:03:05 Super:
Officer James Yarbrough |
Yarbrough:
If
you go through this 40 inmates right here, probably 5 or 6 of these are new
convicts coming to prison and 35 of them are people that’s been out that are
coming back. It’s obvious that we got
to do something to stop these inmates from coming back. Like I said. I don’t know if chain gang’s are gonna
work, but at least they’re trying something.
And as a taxpayer, ya’ know, I like the idea that they’re at least trying
something. |
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Yarbrough:
If this work, ya’ know, let’s try something
else. If we gotta hook them to a ten
pound ball and let them tote that around, let’s get the balls ordered. Ya’ know whatever it takes to stop these
people from coming to prison. |
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Hip Hop Music
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Inmates:
Singing ‘Why me? Tell me. Why they got me on the chain gang. Why
me? Why me? Why the fuck me? Tell him. Why they got us
on the chain gang.’ Inmate: He might shoot. |
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TC 00:04:32 Title
Card: Limestone
Correctional Facility, the site of the first revived chain gang, is the
largest prison in Alabama. |
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Super: Douglas
Vaxter, age 20 Convicted
of theft of property 1, burglarly 3, escape 1, and assault Repeat
offender. |
Director:
What’s your name? Vaxter:
Douglas Vaxter. Director: And how old are you? Vaxter:
20. Director: What are you in here for? Vaxter:
Uh, breaking the law. On numerous occasions. |
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Director:
What do you think about chain gangs here at
this prison? Vaxter: I don’t
know. Just another prison in Alabama,
you know what I mean? That’s – you do
the crime, you do the time. You really
can’t complain about it. |
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TC: 00:05:06 Super: Captain
David Wise Oversees
Limestone chain gang |
Wise:
I spend a lot of my day, talking to concerned
Momma’s about their inmate sons. I can
relate to how a mother would feel about their child. Of course, sometimes you just want to tell them,
well, if you would have done your job, maybe he wouldn’t be here. But that’s not always the case. It’s not the mother’s fault. I know that when I was a child, I was a
very rebellious child. I was a – I was
borderline juvenile delinquent myself.
But I can relate to that mother. She loves her child and I have to look at
it from that perspective. So I try not
to get negative off on their child, but I do, at the same time, try to, in a
tactfully – in a tactful and a professional manner, try to tell them the
truth about their child as far as being in the penitentiary. |
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TC 00:05:49 Super:
Daniel
Jensen, age 19 Convicted
of theft of property 2 First
adult offense. |
Jensen: I was raised up
in juvenile facilities. Probably more
in than out. Um. It ain’t the kindest place for a little kid
to grow up into. I was 9-years-old the
first time I got locked up. I had to
do 70 days for stealing a car. You
know, you’s a kid. Carefree. It’s a fast life. I guess it’s all fun and games until you
grow up and come to prison. |
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Jensen: As
far as me changing, I grew up in places like this all my life, right, but
this is another stage right here. And
I’ve been dealing with this adult system for the last 3 years. Friends that haven’t seen me in 3
years come to prison system, talk about, ‘Damn you changed.” |
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TC 00:06:24 |
Vaxter:
I was
into partying and getting high and drinking and partying and getting high and
drinking and women and partying and getting high and drinking. |
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Vaxter: I know I ain’t going to break the law the way that I was
doing it. I can’t do all that now. I ain’t
gonna say I’m not gonna drink, and I had a drinking problem. I ain’t gonna say that I’m not gonna smoke
weed, you know what I mean? Because, I
know, I’m gonna get out there, and my cousin is gonna want to fire up the
bong and I’m going to want to hit it and sit back and chill out. And why not, you know what I’m saying? I’ve been down for two some years,man,
might as well. I mean, I ain’t gonna
be sitting here and saying, man, “I ain’t
gonna do this, I ain’t gonna do that” cause them are the people that come
back, you know? I only been been in
penitentiary for two years. |
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Vaxter: Me
and my brother got a real close relationship.
I don’t ever think he’ll do the
same things I did, you know. I’d kick
his ass, you know, if he ever started going in the same path I did. I burned
down an apartment complex when I was in second grade. My first police record when I was in third
grade, too. I used to steal cars, for
some time, you know what I’m saying? So
it was a rush. I was breaking
the law, period, and it’s cool like that. |
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Inmate: Shit. Them old convicts, them old covicts, they should
learn not to come back. That’s the
thing is. Second
Inmate: How
can you learn something when the system is designed for you to come
back. Inmate: It
don’t make me no difference. I got to
do what I got to do. |
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Inmates: Go. (GRUNTS.)
Come on with it! Come on with
it! |
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Interviewer: How did you get
assigned to the chain gang? |
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00:08:34 Super: Officer
Ted Loggins |
Loggins: Requested it, put in a request for it. I was on the, a, state SWAT team and then I
came out here. Something new. Something new, more exciting. You learn to live with it. The excitement, that’s why you do it,
that’s reason I do it. There’s always
something going on. You just have to
know where your inmates are. You constantly count them so you get used to
their faces pretty quick.
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Inmate: I
ain’t had a lady in twenty years. |
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Title
Card: At
age sixteen, Joseph Clancy was sentenced to the Alabama chain gang. |
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Clancy:
Doggone, what I went through. It was hell. I would cry from Birmangham to Montgomery,
because I had never left home before.
Guard said. “There’s no reason to cry because you wasn’t coming
back.” They had me convicted for
assault. Me and my neighbor’s son was
up in the tree, playing. He fell out
and ripped his arm open, I got ten years out of it. |
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Super: Donald
Tussey Age
27 |
Interviewer: So,
you think the chain gang is effective? Tussy: Uhhh,
not really. I don’t think it really
does. Cause I look at it this way,
I’ve been locked up since ’87, I come down in ’87 and I look at it this way,
I been on every farm in the state of Alabama. I been at one at Atmore, I been
at the one in Staton and Draper, and I been on the one here. I been out here when these, these wasn’t on us. We didn’t wear these and I never seen but
two people ever try to escape and the probably got 100 yards before police
caught them. You know what I’m saying?
They didn’t have to shoot them. Fired
two warning shots, stopped, you know what I’m saying? Well one of them did. The other one, they had to run him down
with dogs. But you can’t run nowhere. You can’t get nowhere. Man, this place is staked out
everywhere. They got trappers in them
woods. What they call rundogs and in
case you run, they got some people out there in them woods and when you run,
they going to catch you. You ain’t
going to get away. |
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Yarbrough: We’ve
got just about every kind of crime you can imagine out here. Murders, robbers, buying and receiving stolen
property, burglary, you name it, it’s out here, child molesters, you name it,
we got them all. We’ve got people that the courts of our state has said,
don’t have enough sense to live in population with everybody else in a
peaceful harmony. I mean, that’s why I
they’re locked up. They can’t cope
with society, so we’re dealing, actually we’re dealing, in my opinion, with
the sorriest scum God’s allowed to live on this earth, and that’s just the
way they are. That’s the end of the
story. We’re just dealing with some
sorry individuals. Maybe if their mom
and dad took them out behind the woodshed when they were growing up and
blistered that rear-end for them a few times like mine did, they wouldn’t be
in here today. It’s our job to bring these guys out
here into the public and see to it that they do a days work. It’s also our job to see to it that they
don’t escape because if one of these knuckleheads escapes, whether the law
punishes us for it, in my heart, I know I’m responsible for whatever crimes
he commits once he escapes from out here, you know, and right back through
these woods right here, about a hundred and fifty yards, two hundred yards,
there’s a house. Now, if they was to
get over this fence and get through those woods and get to that house and
break into that house and hurt somebody, or… you know, in a way we’d be
responsible for that. |
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TC: 11:54 |
Wise: The
chain is just, uh, let’s face it, the chain is just something that the public
likes, uh, we’re making the public feel like these criminals are being
so-called punished. That’s the
political, and um, the political standpoint, I guess. Makes the politicians look good, we’re
putting these inmates in chains. We’re
tough on crime, and we are tough on crime in Alabama, but I figure the chain
gang’s going to be here and I think you’ll see probably twenty to thirty more
states adopt some form of the chain gang. |
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TC: 00:12:33 Super: Estrella
Facility Maricopa
County, Arizona |
V.O.
Television reporter: You’re looking at the nations first-ever
female chain gang. Fifteen of the hardest-core female prisoners at the
Maricopa County Jail all convicted of felony crimes, all trouble-makers
who’ve broken jailhouse rules. The
alternative to almost all day incarceration is to join the chain gang and
labor eight hours a day, six days a week.
Princess: I’m
hoping also that they’ll see us on TV, out there working and that all the
teenagers, including my own, will look and see that this is no fun, jail is
no fun. |
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Super: Sheriff
Joseph Arpaio Started
First Female Chain Gang |
Arpaio: We
had a chain gang ready to go before Alabama.
I did not have the funds. I’m
an equal opportunity incarcerator. I
do not believe in discrimination outside the jails nor inside. Nobody can fire me. I’m elected by the people. I serve the people and I will do what the
people of this county want their sheriff to do. |
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Super:
Dana
“Frenchie” Stanley Convicted
of Prostitution Repeat
Offender |
Frenchie: The
streets where we are on now is where the prostitutes work. This is the street that I worked on. What better way better way for publicity
then to put us on the street where the tricks ride. I worked this street right here that we
standing on cleaning right now. |
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TC 00:13:57 Super: Princess
Richardson Oldest
Member of the Female Chain Gang |
Director: What’s
it like being chained to five other women doing this work? Princess:
It’s a little difficult when they all don’t
move with you, you know? But, we’re
trying to work it out. Inmate: The
boot is getting tighter and tighter, right here, it’s getting tighter and
tighter. Now I have to loosen it. It hurts.
But they don’t care. They keep
going. |
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Joe: If you are
convicted, you should be punished for your crime. You can talk about rehabilitation,
education, evidently, it hasn’t worked.
I don’t have the chain gang working in the desert, chopping
rocks. I have them on the streets of
Phoenix and other county areas where they can be observed by the public. I want this to be also a deterrent
effect. I want to do a study to see if
the chain gang and all my other get tough programs policies have worked to,
uh, to deter crime. I don’t know, but
we’ll see. |
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Super: Richard
Cohen Southern
Poverty Law Center Sued
Alabama to end Chain Gang |
Cohen:
Quite frankly, we think the whole practice is
barbaric. Our experts tell us that
it’s pure torture, nothing less, nothing more. And it’s the kind of thing that in a modern
society that’s going into the 21st Century, we shouldn’t allow. |
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Super: Ron
Jones Former
Alabama Prison Commissioner Reintroduced
the Chain Gang |
Jones: The
last time I looked, you know, the whole concept of cruel and unusual is based
upon the prevailing sentiments of the population. And there was a national poll taken last
year by the USA Today and nearly 65% pro-chain gang from coast to coast. I’m not opposed to, you know, doing
away with unnecessary abuse in prison system, but the chain gang is not
abusive. Now, it’s true, many prisoners find
the notion of having to work on a regular basis very abusive, no doubt. But, then again, what is the essence of
rehabilitation. If we don’t at least
teach you the value of work, then what have we accomplished? |
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TC:
00:15:13 |
Jensen:
The worst part of the chain gang – getting on
your knees in jagged rocks and let them put chains on your ankles. I can’t think of anything more demeaning or
humiliating. You’re only allowed to
treat animals so wrong. Seem like
animals have more rights then prisoners do.
You’re already in the kennel, you know? When you go outside, they want to put their
leash on you. |
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Tussey: This
camp is for rehabilitation. We don’t
have any rehabilitation here except for this chain gang and I ain’t seen
nothing rehabilitation about it. |
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Officer: Now
this is supposed to be the bad boys here.
But what are they in here for?
They committed a crime. So they
gonna have to suffer. They gonna come
out and do day’s work. You know the
old saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Most of them, that’s all they know. And they talk about rehabilitation. How do you rehabilitate a 19-year-old whose
been already in the system 3 years? He
ain’t had no upbringing so you ain’t gonna be able to rehabilitate him. That’s the only life he knows. When he gets out of here, he’s going out
and doing the same thing again. Most
of them get on the outside and they
can’t make it and they just commit a crime so they will get put back in here. |
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Inmate:
You
got some folks in here that righteously seriously need some help, you know
what I’m saying? Got a lot of them
that need to be in here. Then you got
people that are coming in already got all this, uh, schooling, trading, you know and all that and come
here for petty stuff, you know what I’m saying? And that just putting everyone in
together. And you got some folks that
righteously need some help. Illiterate, ain’t got no trade, you know, and
stuff like that and that’s taking from them. |
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Jensen:
In the D.O.C,
(Department of Corrections) in Alabama, if there’s any kind of
Aryan-type unity it’s automatically gang-related, automatically prejudice and
they try to separate everybody.
They’ll shoot you from one camp to the next and criss-cross you,
criss-cross everybody and get them sent different directions. They’re afraid of -- I don’t know what
they’re afraid of, just… We in Alabama; probably one of the most prejudiced
states in the United States of America. Director: Prejudice against
what? Jensen: Black prejudiced
against white. White prejudiced
against black. |
TC 00:17:17
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Jensen: Only
– only way you gonna get rid of some racial tension is separatism’s the only
way to get rid of – if everybody’s separated.
Well how you want to separate them?
We can separate them however you want to separate them. You can have – you want Canada? You can have Canada. I’ll go to uh-uh-uh Asia or wherever. It don’t matter to me. Inmate: So
what, the black folk supposed to go back to Africa, then, right? Jensen: That’s what I
say. You go where you want to go. I don’t care where you go. Inmate: You
said -- Jensen: You can go to
Canada or wherever. Inmate: That
my people. I saying about what you saying. Jensen: Uh, uh. Inmate: I
ain’t going back to motherfucking Africa without a fight, I’m telling you. Jensen: Ain’t nobody saying
-- arguing about nothing. See –
uh. Inmate: You
all raped the land. Got all the
diamonds. Jensen: People want to
--- people want to say something about, uh, uh, prejudice and racist, see
eople want to say something about, uh, uh, prejudice and racist. Prejudice don’t mean the same thing a
racist. Prejudice mean --- all
prejudice is about is about hatred.
Nationalist means to protect your nation. Racist means to promote your race. I promote my race. Second
Inmate:
You need to get yourself a life, brother. Jensen: You
see I’m deep into my heritage, right?
I’m all about my heritage.
Therefore if you --- people talk about ancestors. My ancestors come from northern Europe,
that were my people come from. I’m
Jensen, I’m Scandinavian, I’m from Denmark. |
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TC: 00:18:22 |
Jensen: I
myself, I’m – I’m a nationalist, which means to promote your nation. Nation, would be like, Aryan nation. Nation means your people. That’s what nation stand for – people. Director: What
does the Aryan nation stand for? Tell
us about that. Some people may not know. Jensen: Aryan
nation? It’s- it’s – it’s funded by
the Church of Jesus Christ Christian in Hadyn Lake, Idaho. It’s ah, ah, ah, it’s a racial identity -
it’s a racial identity, ah, ah, religion-based organization. And they support all people regardless of
--- if – it’s -- to deal prejudice, or whatever, as long as they’re
identifying with their own race and come together and have a religious aspect
to it, then they support them. |
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TC: 00:19:01 |
Tussey: It’s
full of violence because their’s no way to escape that violence. There’s no programs to get rid of that
violence. There’s nothing – No
counseling to help you get over this – these hatred, violent things that they
feel toward you. They ask why convicts don’t have
respect for the law when we get out, it’s because, they show us know respect
in here, how are we supposed to respect them when we get out and be
productive members of society? How
can we be productive members of society when we’re being down-talked by
officers everyday? Kicked around and
laughed at and talked about over supper tables, ya’ know? Like we’re some dogs, but people forget
we’re humans too. We got lives, we got
families, we got children who care about us, ya’ know. I don’t say we’re all good, ‘cause if we were
in here, - because where not in here for being good. We’re in here for breaking the law. But still we deserve chances, you know what
I’m saying? And I don’t mean, just
one, two, three strikes, you’re out, you know? Some, one, two, three strikes your out
shows that the person’s got a problem.
There should be something in this
world that man’s created all this stuff with millions of dollars, that they
can create something to keep someone from breaking the law. You know, not justing locking them away and
throwing away the key. Give them some
kind of rehabilitation. |
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Inmate:
Their
whole past is violence and it’s still violence. And they gotta problem with this and they
try to tell the folks, look I got a problem with violence. You know?
I’m continuing to hurt folks while I’m in prison, you know? What’s you think I’m gonna do when I get
out of prison? And they still don’t
want to try to help you. Well, you
know? Tussey: Just
lock you up. That’s it. |
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Jensen: We’re
doing something in this country that’s already been outlawed in this country,
you know what I’m sayin? It’s already
been outlawed in this country and every other country around – the chain
gang. It’s been outlawed. And now it just looks like to me like we’re
going back in time. If anything, we’re
just – it’s just, ah – a common phrase for it is a New World Order is Global
Slavery. And it’s just one more thing
we’re we accept more control over us where they go the chains on. They can be symbolic or can be
material what they are. Like a
symbolic chain gang is when the government – when they strap down and
everything’s supposed to be all peace and when it’s finally hits you what’s
going on it’s too late you’re already in the New World Order – “been
there.” |
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TC 21:05 Super: Estrella Jail Maximum Security Cell Block |
Female
Officer: Attention! |
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Male
Officer:
March! Female
Chain Gang:
Left, left, left, left, right – left. Left, left, left, left, right –
left. Princess: Leave
at six to catch the train. Female
Chain Gang: Leave at six to catch the train. Princess: Side
by side we work in chains. Female
Chain Gang: Side by side we work in chains. Female
Chain Gang: . Left, left, left, left, right –
left. |
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Director: What do you women
think of the chain gang? Female
Inmate: It’s
alright. It’s recooperating and hey
--! Director: Did
you women want to be on the chain gang, too? Female
Inmate: Yeah,
I do, but they want let me go. Director: Why? Female
Inmate: Because
I’m an escapee. I’ll run like a
rabbit. Laughter. |
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Super: Princess
Richardson Convicted
of Assault with a Deadly Weapon Violated Probation |
Princess: I
pulled out my.357 like this (laughter) and I blew out the window. Then I flew threw it like I was Super
Woman, then I put a shot down the hallway (laughter) right over his
back. And I watched him and his little
girlfriend fell on an old lady walking a dog.
Yvonne: That’s
crazy. Princess: Well he knows
that - He come down the jail and he
said, “you shot me!” And I said, “well
you hit me.” You know? I did not shoot him. I grazed over his shoulder. But I coulda put a dead bullet right into
his back. I just wanted to put the
fear of God into him and to let him know I was tired of being beat. |
|
Super: April
Borck, age 18 Convicted
of Drug Possession and Sales Violated
Parole |
April: When
I was younger I was molested by my adopted father. And when I moved up there, my uncle James
taught me that not all me are going to be like that towards me. And then he died when I was about
12-years-old and I started messing up, just started skipping school, I
started doing a little paint (sniffing) up there and then, they found out,
Arizona found out, and I’m still a ward of the state down here. My aunt had legally guardianship of me. So they brought me back down here, and I
started running. I started running
like --- just running. |
|
Super: Yvonne
“Yo-Yo” Hernandez, age 28 Convicted
of Armed Robbery First
Offense |
Yvonne: I’m
28-years-old. I have five children. I’m in here for armed robbery. I was drinking partying and I wanted to get
high some more. I didn’t have no money
so what we did was go rob a store. And
I took the rap for everybody. Because
I’m the one that got caught. I ended up in here. You know because I have a drug problem, I
have a drug problem. And hopefully one
day I’ll quite, but I doubt that. |
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|
Director: Yvonne, tell us about the tattoo on April’s neck. Yvonne: The
tattoo on April’s neck? I put that on
her. Johnnie – this guy she says she’s going to marry. And she asked me to put it on her. At first I didn’t want to put it on her,
because, she just met this guy, you know? April: In jail. Yvonne: But, uh, she was
like, no it’s gonna be forever, it’s gonna be forever. So, I said, okay then, so I put it on
her. And now it’s permanent. Now it will never come off, unless she gets
it covered. |
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Frenchie:
You just want to – you don’t want to work no
more? Female
Inmate: No, I want a square life, I don’t want to a
job with my kids, you know, I got two kids, you know? Frenchie: I
can’t wait to go back, so I can go back to work. I’m ready to go back to work. Female
Inmate: Oh,
girl look at my arm. Frenchie: Because
I don’t have no kids. You know what
I’m saying. I don’t have no
babies. That might be why. |
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April: To me, selling drugs is better than being out
there selling myself. Which I never
had to do that. Thank God! But I never condemned any of the girls who
did. |
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Frenchie: I
tell my man, “I know I can bring in what two can bring in.” You know what I’m saying? I know I got in myself--- Instead of him
having more women, I can bring in just as much as them two can too. If I got to work double time, you know what
I’m sayin? Female
Inmate:
I just – I enjoy the – I enjoy having “wife-in-laws.” I enjoy the company. I love going and going to go eat with them,
and having fun with them, it’s like you are sisters, except for you is all doing
the same thing. |
|
TC: 00:25:14 |
April: When you are
selling drugs, you don’t hurt no one else.
You’re not hurting anyone, you know?
They’re coming to you and buying it, you know what I mean? If they want to hurt theirself, you know
what? If I don’t sell it to them, someone else is going to be making the
money that I could have to be putting food in my mouth and to be putting
clothes on my back, to be paying my rent. |
|
TC 00:25:33 |
Frenchie: You know, been
beat up, robbed, got my money took, kicked out the car. You know, I ain’t never had nothing like
that happen to me. And I been hoing
(whoring) for ten years. Female
Inmate:
Girl, I done got thrown out of a van, got a knife pulled on me, a gun,
my money took. |
|
TC 00:25:55 |
Loggins: They
don’t make convicts anymore, they have inmates. These younger inmates can’t talk to them,
can’t deal with them. But your older
ones, they – you can deal with them. They understand what’s going on. They respect an officer quicker than these
young 17-year-old – 18-year-old kids that really think they’ve got the world
by the horns. |
|
|
Vaxter: This is my house,
you what I’m saying? It’s all our
house, right. They just come to visit
for 8 hours and make sure no one gets hurt.
They really protecting us, you know what I’m saying . Inmate
1:
They ain’t protecting no -- No, they ain’t doing no kind of protecting. Vaxter: I ain’t gonna let
just no man and tell me what to do in my house. I don’t see it, you know what I’m
sayin? I’ll do what I want to do
regardless, ‘cause I gotta live here, you know what I’m saying? Inmate
1: It’s
about --- all together about 3,000 inmates that work here and it might be
about 100 police, right? Like in the
dorms, they don’t be paying attention.
You might catch an officer, he might be working by being inside, they
not supposed to be coming outside the cube, or nothing. He might be on A side and on B side there’s
4 or 5 niggers jumping on somebody.
You know what I’m saying? They ain’t
here to protect nobody. They here to
make your day rough. That’s all they
want to do. You know what I’m saying? Vaxter: That’s how most
of them want to do, but I ain’t gonna lie, if I was getting jumped on, I damn
sure happy to see them. I’m sure
anybody would. |
|
TC 00:27:22 |
Wise: It’s
a little hard to really understand and really perceive what a correctional
officer does unless you go down there and do that job and walk down there and
walk those hallways. Everybody in
America, every state in America has the same problem Alabama has, we’re
overcrowded. We have too many inmates,
not enough beds. |
|
|
Wise: Average
correctional officer that’s inside the penitentiary, not the one who’s working
outside on the chain gang, but lets say working inside on the chain gang, he
may find himself with one more officer and he’s got four other inmates. That’s the kind of arithmetic that I really
don’t like. It makes it tough on that officer to
really keep up with lets say 150 to 200 inmates. |
|
|
Wise: A
real crafty inmate that’s really got it in for somebody, uh, he’ll take this,
smear some excrement on it, human bowel movement, and stick you with it. Cause gangrene. Uh, this here’s a – there’s a
freeworld knife attached to that, but that’s a pair of sheers that they use
that out on the road. What concerns me
there is that shows me that the correctional officer wasn’t doing his job
real good that day because the inmate came back inside with this. That means he had to bring it from the
outside. It also shows me that the
correctional officer wasn’t keeping up with his tool inventory. That concerns me. These are things correctional officers
have to deal with daily. For every one
that we do find, there’s ten that we don’t find. You can bet that. Penitentiaries all across America are full
of these. Any penitentiary you go in,
any jail you go in these are there.
Now mainly the inmate doesn’t have these for us, he has these for his
own protection and for other inmates. |
|
|
Vaxter: It’s just like on
the street, if you out there doing all that stuff, it’s gonna come back on
you some kind of way. In the form of
Karma, you know, either it’s gonna get done to you or you gonna have to pay
the dues for it. |
|
|
Vaxter: I
was gang member in Chicago and everything.
I promised my mom I wasn’t gonna do it anymore. But the gangs down here, you know, they ain’t
got no political aspect of it, you know what I’m saying? They got just about every gang you can
think of. They got Disciples, Bloods,
Crips, Black P-Stone Rangers, El Rookians.
It’s a whole different world, you know what I mean? |
|
|
Vaxter: I mean, I ain’t
no hellified person on being locked up, but I knew what it was before I got
here, you know what I’m saying? I was
doing time on the street in a sense. I
knew I was coming, I knew I was coming. |
|
|
Yarbrough:
When I first met my wife I was a pretty wild
and crazy guy. And how I ended up staying
out of penitentiary myself is a question I haven’t answered yet. Funny thing I throw in, Warden White, bless
his heart, he’s dead now, he made a statement to one of my supervisors one
time, said the reason Officer Yarbrough is such a good officer is because he
was supposed to have been a convict. I
was a real knucklehead. I was heading
in some directions I should have never been headed. And I heard on the news that they were
gonna open a prison up out here and applications were available at the state
employment office. And I said, what
the heck, I’ll do it. So, I’ll try
it. |
|
|
Yarbrough: You
don’t want to go to bible school tonight?
Why? Daughter: ‘Cause. (MUMBLES) Yarbrough: ‘Cause
why? Are they giving whippings at
bible school tonight or what? Daughter:
No. |
|
|
Mrs.
Yarbrough: I think sometimes when he comes home, he forgets to leave
the language there. And I say, “wait a
minute, your not at work.” Or I’ll say
-- I'll joke, “don’t talk to me like you do the inmates.” (laughter) |
|
|
Yarbrough: Well,
you know, as much as you try to leave work at work, uh, when you deal with
convicts 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, you know, sometimes when you come
home, you know ---- like you tell a convict twice “go do this,” you know, and
“I forgot, Dad,” that’s, you know,
that’s not an acceptable answer. You
know, I’ve told you twice “go do it,”
I expect you to go do it. The worst people in the world are
there and their morals, their concept of human rights are just so far-fetched
from the way we live our life. And I
mean, rape, sodomy, assault, stabbings, uh suicide attempts. One of the guys that works in the laundry,
Gurley, stuck a nail in his head, jabbed it in his temple last night, tried
to commit suicide. Mrs.
Yarbrough:
Oh my! Shh. Calm down. Yarbrough: It’s hard to leave work at prison at
prison, but you still try not to bring it home. When I go to work everyday, and you
know, you think about your job and what you do for a living and you spend
most of your time in that environment.
When I’m gone from this earth I don’t want to be remembered as a
product of a prison environment. |
|
|
Loggins: I’ve
got to worry as much about the public out here trying to get back at one of
these people that’s hurt their family, or hurt them. Or just the fact that
some people are just as mean as hell that’s why they do prison and
penitentiary. Drive by and may want to
start shooting at them. May want to
start shooting at me, because I’ve got them on the chain gang. You got to deal with that. So, it’s a never-ending element around
you. You got to deal with
inmates. They’re not in here for
singing too loud in choir… and you got to deal with the public. The public’s probably our biggest
fear. It’s not just a fear, it’s an
occupational hazard. You watch them
constantly. |
|
|
Clancy: Let me say
this. If you never been, don’t
go. It’s no good place for
nobody. For I got scars on the top of
my head right now, where my head was bust open and took 9 stitches. And it wasn’t no accident neither. |
|
TC 00:33:27 SUPER
OF DIALOGUE |
Officer: You
can show off for the cameras if you want to…’cause they’ll leave in a few
minutes and it’ll just be me and you again. I’m only gonna tell you one more time,
there, slick Willy… …to move over there. |
|
|
Inmate
2:
He just takes his job way too fucking far. I was here a bunch of times when they beat
them people down, man. He’ll grab an
inmate, him and the other cops, man, all come in and beat the hell out of the
inmate. Then they’ll take the inmate
and take them over there to lock-up.
And when they get lock-up, that inmates fucked up for real. They gonna beat his ass up for real. Vaxter: Then hide them. Inmate
2:
Yeah-yeah. Then hide them. Vaxter: They
can kill you in here and it’ll be a justifiable homicide. ‘Cause all they got to do is write your folks and tell them you tried to
escape. Or they can kill you and hide
you and tell them you did escape.
‘Cause they know that. We know
that. |
|
|
Yarbrough: I
can remember one of the closest I ever got to shooting an inmate. I was taking some of the inmates down to
this field. And we was going down the
road here, right here with this orange thing is. Right across the road here is pear
tree. Right here. Right there. This tree was so loaded down with pears
that the limbs were almost on the ground.
And this inmate just decided, you know, kill me, do whatever you got
to do. I got to have me one of them
pears. But he was literally fixing to go
across the road and hollered at him to stop and he said “man, you can shoot
me, I’m gonna get one of them pears.”
“Man you take one more step across that road and that’s exactly what
I’m fixing to do.” In an effort to be - to show the
inmates, that we are human, I guess sometimes they have a hard time realizing
that, I got them all back in the deuce and I had a utililty man go in there
and give everyone of those inmates one of them. |
|
TC 00:35:18 Super: Alabama
Department of Corrections Officer
Training Class |
Trainee
Brown: Six and a half years military
infantry. Got out of the military
October last year. Now residing in
Huntsville with my family and my father’s also a correctional officer in
Georgia, so that’s how I got turned on to this. |
|
Super:
Trainee David Tolbert |
Trainee Tolbert: That’s just something that I wanted to do
was work on the chain gang. You know I
seen it on the TV way back in the day when they had it and that just looks
like something that I would like to do.
Supervision of about 30-40 inmates, of
course under a shotgun and a .38. I
guess it’s maybe the control of the inmates.
You know there’s not a whole lot of inmates like there is inside the
general population of the camp. But,
uh, you have the control --- Instructor: Okay
have a seat. |
|
|
Guns firing
|
|
|
Loggins:
You’re so focused on what’s going on, you
never really hear the shot. Everybody
else does, but you don’t. But
everybody, they go through that.
They’re kind of skittish until that first time you shoot at them. And once you shoot that first round, the
second one, it doesn’t bother you. You
do it just as a reflex. But, you gotta
break your virginity somehow. Director:
How many times have you had to fire a shot. Loggins:
Couple – two, three. |
|
SUPER
OF DIALOGUE |
Tolbert: You
got a chance to, uh… Watch these people – see if they’re
gonna come up and kill you and if they do, blow a big hole in them. Brown: That’s
crazy man. |
|
|
Guns firing
|
|
|
Tolbert:
No matter what, I’ll hit them if I try to
shoot at them. If they’re too far away for me to hit them
with that .38, Or if I want to hit more than one --- Brown: I think they
issue only one at a time. Only one
weapon at a time. Tolbert: No,
you got both of them on the chain gang; .38 on the side and a 12 gauge in
your hand. |
|
|
Guns
firing |
|
|
Loggins: Nobody
has had to fire at an inmate up here, but if one of them run, he’ll get shot
quick. ‘Cause we can’t let him get to
your house. Can’t let him get off the
state property to hurt somebody. |
|
TC 00:37:54 |
Clancy: Limestone
is something like a kindergarten. It’s
good. The men don’t work like we
worked. The men don’t be fed like we
were fed. They don’t sleep like we
slept. Back then we was slaving that’s
what we was doing. Slaving. I even commit suicide before I go
back. And I meant that. And I ain’t been back neither. |
|
Super: Rhonda
Brownstein Southern
Poverty Law Center |
Brownstein:
If inmates who were assigned to the chain
gang are too sick, for example, to work one day.. Rather then take them to
the doctor and have their allegations of illness checked out, instead, they
consider that a refusal to work and they put the inmate on what’s called a
hitching post. And it’s a metal bar
where they handcuff the inmate their hands at approximately chest level. |
|
|
Wise: The
concept of the chain gang is to make it a little tougher than normal prison
life. If an inmate’s placed on the hitching
post he will stay there all day handcuffed to that post. If he stands there handcuffed to that post
in 90 degree weather, he’s usually ready to work the next day. Very few have to go back twice. Brownstein:
One inmate, a gentleman by the name of Larry
Hope, was assigned to the hitching post and he was out there on a very hot
day. And he was just begging and
begging for water. Instead the guard
poured the water into a big bowl and fed the dogs - gave the dogs a drink of
water right in front of Larry. Just to
further his suffering. And then took
the water cooler, put it within a few feet of Larry, where he couldn’t get to
it, but could see it, then knocked it over and then spilt all of the water
out all over the floor. And this is
the kind of sadistic type of torture that is really engendered by the chain
gang. |
|
|
Yarbrough:
When
the Southern Poverty Law Center had that law suit going on, uh one of the
things they wanted to see was one of those portable potties that we put out
on the highway for the inmates to use.
So Officer McLaren and myself went and got the portable potty and we
set it up out in front of the admin building so they could see it. And all these lawyers walked out there and
they was looking and they were talking and they were saying “well this is
kind of primitive, isn’t it?” Well,
“hell,” I said, you got to do what you can do on the highway.” And one of the lawyers looks at me and
says, “well do you use this?” And I
said, “no sir.” He says, “well is your
bladder or kidneys different from these inmates?” I said, “no sir.” He said, “well if you have to use the bathroom,
what do you do?” I said, “I get in the
Lieutenant’s truck and go to the filling (GASOLINE) station, I go to the
institution if I have to.” He says,
“well why don’t you use this just like the inmates?” I said, “let me tell you something right
now.” I said, “I’m not the one who
broke the law. I’m not the one who got
locked up. They did. I don’t eat where inmates eat, I don’t shit
where inmates shit, I don’t sleep where inmates sleep. If I need to use the bathroom, I’m gonna go
where I get to use the bathroom. If
you want to use the bathroom out there on the highway with them, you can come
out there and work one day with them and when you have to shit, we’ll put
that thing up and let you shit right there with them. But I’ll bet you, you’ll get in your car
and go to a filling station too because you’re not locked up.” |
|
TC 00:41:08 Super: The
Alabama chain gang houses over 400 inmates in an open room dormitory. |
Inmate: Hey. Get this on film. I wish I had one wish. I line all you people up, and get an AK or
an Uzi, and blow every mother fucking brain out in here. (laughter) |
|
|
Vaxter:
I’ve heard of situations, you know what I’m
saying, you might wake up and some motherfucker might be giving you oral sex,
and some people fall weak and like it.
And then time goes on, ones doing the other one. Then the other one, the one’s who’s been
getting all the doing, or doing all the catching, he gonna come back two
weeks later with a few of his homeboys, now he want to pitch, and you the
catcher. |
|
|
Wise: You take a young
inmate, come into the penitentiary system, especially, let’s say a young
white boy who has got blonde hair and blue eyes. They’re gonna make him into a girl. It don’t matter how hard I watch him, how hard
I try, they’re gonna most - unless he’s just meaner - you know, just one of
the meanest people you could come across, they’re gonna turn him into a
girl. |
|
|
Yarbrough:
What if you go up there to take shower and
you walk back to your cell, and you’re nice and clean and you got your
shampoo and your soap and this guy just walks up and snatches you in his cell
by the hair of the head and as soon as you enter that cell, another guy tags
you with his fist right between the eyes and you’re just addled, just don’t
know what’s going on. And by the time you do realize what’s going on three or
four big brutes have thrown you across that bed and one of them’s got a
prison made knife at your throat telling you if you move, he gonna kill you,
and they’ll do it. Now how you gonna tell me, they not fixing to rape
you? You say it won’t happen? It’s gonna happen. It happens everyday in the prison. It’ll happen to you too when you get
here. And I try to tell these young
kids that, because they need to understand, prison is not a nice place to
be. I mean, it’s an ugly place. |
|
|
Inmate:
Here you go darling. Here you go sweety. (Laughter)
Hey don’t talk to her like that.
That’s my wife. Don’t talk to
my wife like that. (OVERTALK) Inmate: Hey let me fuck
you in your big pussy. (Laughter) |
|
TC 00:43:27 Title
Card: The
women of Estrella near the end of their time on the chain gang. |
|
|
|
Princess: I’m more not as
nervous, you know? I’m not going out
my mind. I got exercise. But if I had to stay in here all day, I
would just be miserable. You know? |
|
|
April: My
plans are to, hopefully be with Johnny.
And get married and settle down and to be able to kick back with my
homeboys but not do the crazy stuff that we used to. I can have the money even if I do get locked
up. ‘Cause with selling drugs, when
you get locked up they take everything you have. |
|
|
Yvonne:
I just
– my three little ones are in L.A. and my two older ones are here with my
Mom. I’m very excited to go home and see my
kids, you know. I don’t know, that’d
be hard for my three little ones because they don’t know - to this day, they
don’t know I’m in jail. My two older
ones, they think it’s cool (laughter), my two older ones do. But my three
little ones, that’d be hard to explain to them. They would be like, “Mom, why were you on
the chains?” I guess I would have to
tell them the truth. But I don’t want
to tell them. It hurts too much, you
know. |
|
TC 00:44:44 |
Director: What
do you want to do when you get out of here? Jensen:
My
main objective is to go back home, I guess.
Leave Alabama and go back to California. As far as do, you mean on the streets? That’d be like – that’d be like trying to
talk about some jailhouse religion come in here and becoming a saved
Christian, you know what I’m saying? I
got my life and I gotta live it like I can,try to stay out of trouble, that’s
all I can do. Director: How
you think you’ll stay out of trouble? Jensen: Only
way someone would surely stay out of 100% trouble when they leave here, just be
100% converted, I guess. Come in here
and learn. But this is no - this isn’t
a place for rehabilitation, right? This ain’t a place where you could
come to learn from your mistakes and learn about why you did what you
did. This is a place of punishment. If you change it’s on you. It’s your decision. |
|
|
Vaxter: Only
message that the chain gang’s righteously giving off is that they don’t
really care about you, you know I’m saying?
That the system doesn’t care. They want to go down there and show
the public, you know what I’m saying, that they got these people out here hating
it and suffering, you know and they
putting em through pure hell on the chain gang, this, that and the other
thing. It makes people more made at society,
you know. I’m still scared of going
out there, because I don’t know how society’s gonna accept me and I don’t
know how I’m gonna accept society. |
|
TC 00:46:08 Title
Card: Yvonne
Hernandez is the last member of the first female chain gang. She
will be released in two weeks. |
|
|
|
Yvonne: Look,
I’m nervous. Everyday I wake up, I’m
excited because I get to go home with my family first and then I go to
rehab. I have served 18 months in the county
jail. Right here in Estrella. And most of it I did in lock down (disciplinary
custody). You know, once I leave here
I’m gonna try my best to do good. |
|
TC 00:46:31 Title
Card: Yvonne’s
friend April is on the run. |
Yvonne: April didn’t go
to rehab. She is living in a dope
house with a dope dealer that is her boyfriend. If she stays out there, she’s gonna end up
dead. She’s gonna end up dead. But eventually, if she doesn’t turn
herself in, she will be caught. The chain gang? It’s either gonna do two things to you;
it’s gonna sink in, or it’s not gonna do nothing. You know, and that’s all up
to you. And when it sinks into you and
you feel it you know you’re gonna change.
|
|
Title
Card: While
in prison, Daniel Jensen was charged with marijuana possession. Though
his state sentence is over, the county where he was imprisoned issued a
warrant for his arrest. |
|
|
Title
Card: His
family refuses to pay $100 bail for his release. SUPER
OF DIALOGUE |
Jensen: A $100 to let me out and they won’t even come get me. Officer:
Why is
he doing this? Is this your father or
your stepfather? Jensen: It’s my real father. Officer: Well Daniel, you
gotta understand, now. I’m not talking
about your father and I’m not gonna talk about you… …but you gotta understan, if you’re
leading a life of crime… that’s not easy to digest for a
family, and unfortunately, fathers expect a lot, …maybe more that you’re willing to
come up with, okay? And what I’m saying, don’t have too
big a hard-on (RESENTMENT) for your dad… …because he expects you to walk the
straight and narrow. |
|
|
Jensen: It’s like you
done it so long, you know. You’ve done
the system so long it shouldn’t embarrass you or nothing because nothing
amazes you, you know what I’m saying? Everyone wants to forget and put stuff
behind them. Well I guess you need to
remember stuff like this, you know what I’m saying? That’s the purpose of it, it’s not for you
to forget it so that you will remember, you know? I did more time on the chain gang than
anyone else had. It probably hardened
me in a lot places where people ain’t supposed to be hard at. |
|
Title
Card: Princess
Richardson has been released from Estrella. She
is now living at a drug rehabilitation center. |
Princess: They got me
stabilized on my medication. They seem
to be helping me a lot. And this
program out here really isn’t that bad.
So far. I’ve only been here
like a week. I haven’t had to deal with my husband
in a while, my ex. Thank God for that,
but - mainly because I think he doesn’t know where I’m at at this
moment. But then again, I could be
wrong. Too much of my time, I spend
running. And I turned to the wrong
people and the wrong things. So therefore I have to make a stand
somewhere. So this is as good a place
as any. |
|
Title
Card: Two
days later, Princess Richardson walked away from the rehabilitation center. She
was later placed in an intensive drug program. |
|
|
TC 00:49:28 |
Yvonne:
You
know it’s scary because a lot of these girls came – you know – they came back
and you know went to prison. And I
hope, oh my God, I hope |
|
Title
Card: Three
weeks after her release, Yvonne failed to report to her parole officer. She
became a fugitive from justice. |
|
|
|
Director: Well – I think
you were gonna get married? April: Oh,
to this guy right here? Nah. He started smoking rock (CRACK COCAINE) and
it was just like, I got out and I was serious about a relationship and stuff,
but then when I got with him he was out there smoking rock. Then I did get engaged again and I was
3 to 4 weeks pregnant. And me and my
boyfriend we got into a fight and he hit me in the stomach on accident and I
lost it. I left him and that’s when I started
doing the drugs and stuff. And I just
started going down from there. I tried
to commit suicide, and I started doing a lot of robberies and things like
that. Possession, sales, weapons
misconduct, I’m gonna be page 2 with an assault with a deadly weapon. Because I shot some girl while I was out
there. Everybody that’s been on the chain
gang’s came back. It’s like the chaings what was holding
the bond. And I lost that bond when
we all got off that chain. The chain gang, when I was on it, it
started having an impact on me. But
after I got off it, the impact was lost.
It was lost. |
|
Title
card: April
was released on intensive probation. A
few months later, she was arrested on drug charges. She
was sentenced to 10 to 15 years. |
|
|
|
Vaxter: You know, I look
at it like I’m not even in prison, you know?
Physically, but mentally, I’m not here for real. Not in my mind. Because once you’re in prison in your mind,
you’re institutionalized then. I’m not
whining about nothing, you know? I
feel as if, no one told me I had to be out there stealing those peoples cars
but I was doing it anyway. The last thing I want to be able to
say is to someone ever is being back in here, talking to a dude and saying I
was in here back in ’95 and the year maybe 2025 or something like that, you
know? I haven’t wrote nothing down on a
letter or sent it in a letter to no one in the free world. Telling them about what goes on, what’s
happening, you know. I would just tell
them that I’m doing alright. This that
and the other thing. It’s really a hard place to live in,
speaking of it, you know. I try to not even have a constant
thought about this place. |
|
Title
Card: Douglas
Vaxter was denied parole. He
completed his sentence May 14, 1999. |
|
|
Title
Card: On
February 20, 2004 Douglas was murdered outside of a convenience store. He
was shot in the face after an argument with an acquaintance. |
|
|
TC 00:52:19 |
Jensen: I was in prison
for 3 years, 9 months and 14 days. I
was probably on the chain gang for 18
months. It made me hate a lot. I will not come back to prison. I’ve already prevented myself from it. I can do it. |
|
Title
Card: After
his attorney posts $100 bail for his marijuana charge, Daniel Jensen
experiences freedom. |
|
|
|
Jensen: I’m a
survivor. I can make it in any of
them. The roughest prison, you know
what I’m saying? The roughest
neighborhood on the streets, whatever, you know what I’m saying? I’ll make it. |
|
Title
Card: Thirteen
days later, Daniel Jensen was charged with 7 felony counts, including 1st
degree robbery and 1st and 3rd degree theft of
property. |
|
|
Title
Card: He
was sentenced to 10 to 15 years. |
|
|
Title
Card: Daniel
has renounced his ties to the Aryan Nation after becoming a Born Again
Christian. |
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Superimposed
Title Card: In
1997 a federal magistrate ruled the use of Alabama’s hitching posts a
violation of inmates’civil rights. In
1999, Alabama quietly ended its chain gang program for budgetary reasons. |
Officer: |
|
Superimposed
Title Card: In
2004, Maricopa County started a chain gang for juvenile offenders. |
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END CCREDITS
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