Controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona's Maricopa County, known for his tough law-and-order stance, has had male chain gangs since 1995, female chain gangs since 1996 and chain gangs for juveniles convicted as adults since 2004. Those inmates, who work eight hours a day six days a week, also are volunteers who want to get outside even if it means weeding, clearing brush or picking up litter in the hot sun.
Other sheriff's departments across the country — including Bristol County, Mass.; Butler County, Ohio; and Clallam County, Wash., — have volunteer chain gangs, some since since the late 1990s though Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson prefers to call his inmates tandem work crews. Prisons in several states including Arizona and Iowa also have shackled inmate crews that do landscaping or cleanup outside prison grounds.
A few sheriff's departments have tried and abandoned the idea, including Johnson County, Ind., which had too small a staff to keep up with the program's popularity.
The Brevard County Sheriff's Office operates about five inmate work details outside the jail on any given day, but this new work-crew is the only one outfitted in bold, black and white stripes and locked up in chains. The sheriff hopes the new look will send a message.
"I remember growing up as a small kid, looking out the window of our home at members of the chain gang working in a ditch and thinking to myself: That's not a place I would ever want to be," Ivey said. "I've said from the very beginning that I'm going to put emphasis on crime prevention, and this is a component of that. Not wanting to go to jail is a form of crime prevention."
Ivey said the chain gang instills a strong work ethic in the inmates, which can be part of their rehabilitation,while also acting as a high-profile deterrent to passersby.
Under state law, only inmates convicted of a crime can participate on a work detail. They must qualify for "trustee" status, meaning their criminal history is neither extensive nor violent and they have demonstrated good behavior in jail.
Thirty-five men volunteered for the eight positions on the chain gang.
"Once they're sentenced, we're allowed to work them X number of hours per day," Ivey said, adding that he chose volunteers for the chain gang because he wanted to make sure all inmates on the detail bought into its mission of being an anti-crime public relations campaign.