Kennewick Equips for Chain-Gang Labor
The city council implements a new ordinance requiring prisoners to serve their sentences performing hard labor on the streets.
The city has purchased through the Kennewick Hardware Co. a complete outfit for controlling and restraining a prisoner. The outfit consists of a ball and chain, handcuffs, knuckles, billie, slung shot, etc. The ordinance recently passed requires prisoners to work on the streets or other city work, so that prisoners working with ball and chain attached may be seen any day.
“The ordinance recently passed requires prisoners to work on the streets or other city work, so that prisoners working with ball and chain attached may be seen any day.”
This reflects the era's harsh penal philosophy, where incarceration was often paired with visible, public forced labor. It highlights how quickly frontier towns moved to establish rigid, punitive systems as part of their 'civilizing' infrastructure.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.