What is a chain gang?

Question

What is a chain gang?

Answer 1

A chain gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging labor, such as chipping stone, often along a highway or rail bed. This system existed primarily in the United States, and by 1955, had been phased out of use nationwide

Answer 2

Convicts who were forced out into the fields to work as part of their incarceration were chained together while in the field so they couldn't escape.

Answer 3

In years past, prisoners were often chained together at the ankles to make it easy for a few guards to control a bunch of prisoners.  Each prisoner would have an ankle bracelet attached to a length of chain and another ankle bracelet which went on the ankle of another prisoner. Chain gangs often were outside the walls of the prison doing road work, clean up, etc.