It's a genuine question.
The conditions appear terrible!
I cannot believe they were this harsh!
It's not as though they were hardened murderers or rapists.
Look up Chain Gang.
Real
Look up Angola, Louisiana
. Ephemeron.
Probably were in pre 1970's. Strict rules and the law.
_
http://67.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lm56tvJqLq1qb9pa3o1_500.gif
The film is based on the novel "Cool Hand Luke" by Donn Pearce. Pearce served time on a Florida road gang in the late 1940s and was a technical advisor for the film (I believe he even had a small role as one of the convicts). So the depiction of the barracks, the guards and "the box" was probably pretty accurate.
Florida had maximum security prisons for murderers. Road gangs were for low level offenders who were usually serving shorter sentences and were allowed to work outside. They only had to wear a set of leg chains if they had tried to escape.
Compare this movie with the 1932 film "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" which was based on the real life story of a man who was held in a much more brutal Georgia road gang in the 1920s and who successfully escaped. The bad treatment such as floggings that went on in that film would make your hair curl and make "the box" seem very tame by comparison.
When I studied criminal justice in college I read that southern road gangs by the 1950s had gotten more humane and were preferred by experienced convicts because they normally served shorter sentences there and working outside made the day go by quicker.
On the other hand the 1980 Robert Redford movie "Brubaker" shows how bad the Arkansas prison was in the late 1960s. That movie is also based on a true story of an outsider warden trying to reform things.
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang was much worse, and even that movie sugar-coated chain gang life because it was made in 1932. They worked longer hours, harder, and ate food that was hog fat and a dough ball made out of flour and lard or unwashed cowpeas for their meals. In this movie that had beans and cornbread, which by the way, looked pretty yummy and they had sodas to drink in their leisure time and could afford a bunch of eggs to eat.
Prior to WW2, being sentenced to a chain gang was pretty much a slow death unto itself, even if your sentence was only a couple of years. The crackers in power weren't about rehabilitation and building character, but treating life cheaply and wanting to destroy your mind and body.
"The crackers in power weren't about rehabilitation and building character, but treating life cheaply and wanting to destroy your mind and body."
What were they thinking? Not like today when inmates almost universally rehabilitate and create productive, meaningful lives in the outside world.