Word: ganges
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...debate over the death penalty reached its peak in Massachusetts this week, concern for an issue of almost equal significance in the category of "cruel and unusual punishment" has been sorely lacking. That issue is the resurgence of support for the chain gang and other similarly inhumane and archaic methods of punishment...
...these broadcasts featured comments both from the governor and from some of the prisoners who were already working in chain gangs on public works projects. the corpulent Edwards, his bare forehead beginning to sweat from the sun at his outdoor interview, told the network correspondent, "...if you gon' rape an' kill an' rob...you gon' end up on the chain gang!" Out on the road, the sweltering prisoners in their manacles and white uniforms complained far more eloquently; after decrying his chains and working conditions, one stated...
Abuse plagued the chain gangs that survived into the middle of this century. This abuse would not necessarily end with stricter regulations on chain gangs, because the root cause would still exist. The chain gang puts prisoners in adverse circumstances to begin with, and any abuse could bring disaster and death. When any individual has absolute power over the physical wellbeing of a whole group of individuals--and when those individuals are society's outlaws--that potential for that abuse grows immeasurably...
Today's advocates of the chain gang offer a much more sanitized scenario for its institution. But even without the squalid conditions and whippings, the spectre of back-breaking labor mandated by the state remains. It is the promise of that very labor that people such as Edwards use to press the chain gang's case; the new workforce can be turned to improving roads, public lands and other state infrastructure...
Couldn't that labor also be turned to manufacturing toys and garments that a scrupulous nation such as ours would refuse to buy from an exploitative nation such as, say, the People's Republic of China? The working conditions on the chain gang are hardly better than those in China's prison sweatshops, and the compensation of the laborers is hardly any better. We began by opening trade with China, but perhaps we should stop short of importing their techniques for punishment...