A long line of women in orange march down the sidewalk in time to "left, left.... left, right, left." Chains rattle as the girls are put on parade to smile for the cameras. Hello y'all, this is the first female chain gang in American history. Dana, a repeat offender for prostitution is feeling the irony. In her days as "Frenchie" she used to "work on the street that we are cleaning right now."

A few hundred miles away, men dressed in white work hard to uproot massive tree trunks. Ankles are in chains and feet in "boots that just get tighter and tighter". "You can't run nowhere - this place is staked out," a prisoner David Tussey says, pointing to the guards. "When you run, they are going to catch you, you ain't going to get away." On each corner of the field are officers 'trappers' in blue with gun in hand just waiting for one to try.

As crime rates soar, chain gangs are a visible get-tough policy. "If you have been convicted you should be punished" argues Sheriff Joseph Arpai. A creation of the "Alternative thinking unit," they are popular with the public. It was the "prevailing sentiment of the population" that moved Police Commissioner Ron Jones to "teach the value of work" by introducing the chain gang. With one officer to every 300 inmates it is cheap, effective and a deterrant to crime.

Princess Richardson, the longest serving female inmate in Alabama, finds working "Eight hours a day six days a week" a welcome alternative to "all day incarceration". In her high security prison filled with drug dealers, prostitutes and murders, it is the only fresh air that they get. Many aren't allowed to join the chain gang in case they try to escape. 'I am an escapee...I'll run like a rabbit', admits one prisoner. Things are a bit tougher for the boys in Alabama...

Larry was ill one day and asked to have a day off. You don't have a day off in the chain gang. Instead 'he was reportedly tied to a metal bar stuck in the ground and left in the intense heat with no water. According a trainee officer, this is all the "sorriest scum that God has let live on this earth' deserve. If they aren't watched, they might 'come up and kill you. If they do, you blow a big hole in 'em.

Faced with such attitudes, it's unsurprising that prisoners complain of being denied the chance of rehabilitation. 'How can we be respectful to society when we are downtalked every day?' questions inmate Donald Tussey. 'We still need chances ... people forget we are human too.'

Cinema Libre Studios