It’s another day in penal America and a new prisoner transport arrives. Each flight is met by a security detail armed with lethal firepower. America’s prison population is exploding, nearly two million, and the only way to manage that population is to ship prisoners to vacant jail spaces around the US. Hence the function of JPATS - the Justice Prisoner Alien Transportation System. Before boarding a routine flight from Kansas to Oklahoma, prisoners are intimately searched for any conceivable weapon. Every prisoner is shackled. "You have enough room to eat and use the restroom – other than that you are restricted in all movement", explains one security guard. It doesn’t matter if you’re a murderer, a terrorist or a female illegal worker, the leg irons and the handcuffs still go on. “We dub them all as high security prisoners because we do not differentiate between a white collar prisoner or a terrorist", says Scott Rolstad, JPATS’ chief security officer. On board, rows of prisoners in chains are seated in aircraft rows. But under international air regulations, all passengers on civilian aircraft must be able to evacuate their passengers within 90 seconds. But how can you escape from an aircraft if you are trussed up in chains? ”First and foremost we get ourselves out, then we assist the prisoners the best way we can", comments a security guard. But the US Marshal Service who run the plane are unrepentant. ”We treat the prisoners humanely. The only force they would ever see is that we meet force with force”."

Produced by Force 10