Eyewitnesses say it was a scene straight out of a black and white movie from the 1950s. As the sun rose over the fields of Huntsville, Alabama, in the American South, the convicts got down from the trucks that had brought them there. Watched over by guards with guns, they raised their legs in unison and made their way to the edge of the highway, Interstate 65. The BBC's Washington correspondent Clare Bolderson was there and she sent this report:

"They wore white uniforms with the words 'Chain Gang' on their backs and, in groups of five, were shackled together in leg irons joined by an eight-foot chain. The prisoners will work for up to 90 days on the gang: they'll clear ditches of weeds and mend fences along Alabama's main roads. While they are working on the gang, they'll also live in some of the harshest prison conditions in the United States. There'll be no televisions or phone calls; many other day-to-day privileges will be denied."

The authorities in Alabama say there is a lot of support for the re-introduction of chain gangs in the State after a gap of 30 years (the last gangs were abolished in Georgia in the early 1960s). Many people believe it is an effective way to get criminals to pay back their debt to society.

The prisoners stay shackled when they use toilets. They reacted sharply to the treatment they are given:

Prisoner one: "This is like a circus. A zoo. All chained here to a zoo. We're all animals now."

Prisoner two: "It's degrading. It's embarrassing."

Prisoner three: "In chains. It's slavery!"

Six out of every ten prisoners in chains are black, which is why the chain gangs call up images of slavery in centuries gone by, when black people were brought from Africa in leg irons and made to work in plantations owned by white men. Not surprisingly, although three quarters of the white population of Alabama supports chain gangs, only a small number of black people do. Don Claxton, spokesman for the State Government of Alabama, insists that the system is not racist:

"This isn't something that's done for racial reasons, for political reasons. This is something that's going to help save the people of Alabama tax money because they don't have to pay as many officers to work on the highways. And it's going to help clean up our highways and it's going to help clean up the State."

However, the re-introduction of these measures has caused a great deal of strong disagreement. Human rights organizations say that putting prisoners in chains is not only inhumane but also ineffective. Alvin Bronstein, member of the Civil Liberties Union, says that study after study has shown that you cannot prevent people from committing crimes by punishment or the threat of punishment: "What they will do is make prisoners more angry, more hostile, so that when they get out of prison, they will increase the level of their criminal behavior."

Civil liberties groups say that chaining people together doesn't solve the causes of crime, such as poverty or disaffection within society. What it does is punish prisoners for the ills of society. They say the practice takes the United States back to the Middle Ages, and that it is a shame to American society. But that's not an argument likely to win favor among many people in the Deep South of the United States. Alabama's experiment is to be widened to include more prisoners, and other States, such as Arkansas and Arizona, will very probably introduce their own chain gang schemes.

看到這個情景的人說，這就像50年代一部黑白電影中的場景：當太陽從美國南部阿拉巴馬州的亨茨威爾的田野上升起時，罪犯們從運送他們的卡車上下來。在持槍的衛兵監視下，他們步伐整齊地向65號州際的高速公路的路邊走去。英國廣播公司駐華盛頓記者克萊爾德森就在現場，并發回如下報道：

罪犯們穿著白我號衣，背上寫有"Chain Gang"字樣。他們五人一組，用一條八英尺長的鐵鏈把他們的腿拴在一起。這些囚犯要這樣串在一起干90天活兒；他們要清理排水溝上的雜草，要維修沿阿拉巴馬主干道的防護欄。他們要串在一起勞動不說，他們監獄的有些條件也是美國最惡劣的：沒有電視，不讓接電話；其他日常生活的權利也被剝削。

阿拉巴馬州當局說，事隔30年，有許多人贊成恢復使用這種刑罰認為這是讓罪犯向社會贖罪的有效方法。

囚犯們上廁所戴著鐐銬，他們對遭受的待遇反應強烈：

囚犯甲說，"這簡直是一個馬戲團，一個動物園。所有的人都被鏈子捆在一起，這是把我們當動物嘛！"

囚犯乙說，"這不是踐踏人，羞辱人嘛！"

囚犯丙說，"用鐵鐐，奴隸制才會這樣做。"

用鐵鏈串在一起的犯人60%是黑人，正因如此，這些帶鐐銬和囚犯想到了幾個世紀前的奴隸制下的種種景象，那時黑人帶著腳鐐從非洲帶來，被近在白人的種植園里干活。阿拉巴馬雖有3/4的白人支持帶鐐服刑，卻只有很少一部分黑人贊同這樣做，這就不足為怪了。阿拉巴馬州政府發言人唐克萊斯頓堅持認為這個辦法并沒有各族歧視的意思：

"這樣做并非是種族和政治原因。這樣做管理高速公路的干部少了，阿拉巴馬的百姓就可以少交些稅嘛。而且，還可以清理高速公路的衛生，此外，全州的衛生也可以得到清理。"

但是，恢復這些措施招致了許多人的強烈反對。一些人權組織認為，把犯人用鐵鏈拴在一起既不人道也不起什么作用。"公民自由聯合會"的會員阿爾文布朗斯坦認為，研究一再證明不能靠懲罰或用懲罰威嚇來阻止犯罪，"他們這樣做的結果是犯人更加惱怒，抵觸情緒更厲害。等出了獄，他們會變本加厲地做壞事。"

一些公民自由組織認為，把人用鐵鏈拴起來不能消除像社會中存在的貧困以及不滿等犯罪根源；它的作用不亞于為懲罰囚犯來維護社會的弊病。他們覺得這是讓美國退回到了中世紀，是美國社會的恥辱。但這種說法看來不大可能贏得美國南方腹地幾個州的人民的響應。阿拉巴馬很快就要在更多的囚犯身上使用這個辦法，像阿肯和亞利桑那等其他幾個州也很有可能實行各自的一套串綁囚犯的辦法。