Thanks to comics and old movies it has become iconic: the socalled ball-and-chain: a heavy device to restrict the movement of convicts when doing forced labor in public. A huge heavy iron ball, with a diameter of up to 25 centimeters and weighting up to 16 kilos in case of full ball-and-chain assemblies used for severe punishments, was connected by a thick chain - typically under one meter in length - to a sturdy shackle. This fetter was locked - or even riveted shut to prevent removal without specialized tools - around an ankle of the prisoner (usually the right one), making escape nearly impossible.
The chain consists of interconnected forged iron links, providing flexibility while limiting stride length. Historical examples show chain lengths ranging from approximately 66 cm to 90 cm, with links typically oval or figure-eight shaped for durability and resistance to breakage. In some cases not just one, but two chains were connected to the ball, thus offering a shackle for each of both ankles.
The limited length of the chain, combined with the heavy weight of the ball forced the wearer to take short shuffling steps, making full-paced walking, running, or jumping infeasible.  Dragging or swinging the ball demanded continuous muscular effort against gravity and friction, inducing rapid fatigue and disrupting balance during motion. n operation, the device's inertia resists acceleration, causing the ball to lag and potentially trip the wearer during hurried attempts to flee, while permitting slow, supervised ambulation. Historical accounts confirm this configuration rendered escape virtually impossible and movement extremely difficult, tailored for control during penal tasks rather than total immobilization.
EARLY HISTORY (A summary from the lemma in the Grokipedia)
Historically employed in penal systems from the 17th to the mid 20th centuries, particularly in the British Empire and its (former) colonies like the United Sates, the device therefore was especially applied to troublesome convicts laboring outside prison walls, rendering flight arduous while at the same time still permitting limited locomotion during supervised manual labor or transport under guard. Unlike earlier medieval shackles or stocks, which often immobilized detainees entirely or fixed them in place, the ball-and-chain introduced a weighted, portable element that balanced restraint with utilitarian functionality for penal authorities.
The invention of the ball-and-chain likely arose from practical needs in expanding early modern penal systems, where overcrowded jails and the logistics of labor extraction favored devices that hindered running without requiring constant wall attachment. By the late 17th century, this form had become standard in British gaols for high-security detainees, predating its proliferation in colonial settings. The pic underneath shows a copy found in the Thames 2009.
19th-CENTURY EXPANSION
In the early 19th century, the ball-and-chain integrated into emerging state prison systems in the United States, particularly under the Auburn model of congregate labor and enforced silence, where it served as a restraint for disciplinary infractions and escape prevention, as at Sing Sing Prison in New York, operational from 1826. This practice reflected the era's emphasis on physical deterrence in penitentiaries designed for thousands, with Sing-Sing itself housing up to 1,000 inmates by 1830 through state-funded expansion.
British penal colonies, especially in Australia, at the same time broadened the device's application for recidivist convicts via "iron gangs" tasked with public works like road-building. Governor Ralph Darkling formalized this in New South Wales from 1824, assigning ball-and-chain restraints to over 700 reoffenders by 1830 to enforce labor on infrastructure projects spanning 1,200 miles of roads, reducing escape risks in remote areas. Such gangs, drawn from Hyde Park Barracks holdings, targeted "incorrigibles" awaiting secondary punishment, with chains limiting gait to 12-18 inches per step during chained marches.
By mid-century, Southern U.S. states adapted the restraint for emerging chain gangs post-emancipation, initially in Mississippi from 1866, where short-chain ball attachments to leg irons enabled supervised fieldwork on levees and railroads, accommodating labor shortages after the Civil War. This expansion tied into convict leasing systems, with Alabama reporting over 1,000 chained workers by 1880, though records note higher injury rates from uneven terrain compared to institutional use.
20th-CENTURY APPLICATIONS
In the early 20th-century, ball and chain restraints persisted in American  penal systems, primarily for punishing escape risks and controlling prisoners during extramural labor, such as road building or municipal maintenance. A notable application occurred in Seattle, where chain gangs employed ball-and-chain fittings on vagrants, drunks, and petty offenders unable to pay fines, compelling them to perform city tasks like street cleaning into the 1900s.
Similar restraints appeared in California facilities, with artifacts from San Quentin State Prison demonstrating use for high-security inmates into the 20th century, as evidenced by preserved examples in museum collections. In Southern states, chain gangs incorporating ball-and-chain elements for individual restraint supplemented linked-ankle systems, enforcing labor on infrastructure projects until reforms curbed such practices. The pic underneath shows two original, very heavy samples, now in the Texas Prison Museum.
Historical accounts from early 20th-century prisons indicate its use for convicts dispatched beyond facility walls, as in Washington state facilities around 1910, where it slowed movement enough to prevent flight while allowing basic tasks like gravel hauling or tree felling. In group settings, prisoners might wear individual ball and chains or be linked serially with leg irons, forming lines that moved as a unit; for instance, Georgia's chain gangs in the 1900s chained squads of 20 to 50 men for highway maintenance, with the added weight of balls increasing fatigue and compliance.
ABOLISHMENT BY THE MID-20th CENTURY
By the mid-20th century, mounting judicial and humanitarian critiques of physical brutality prompted widespread phase-out in U.S. prisons, with chain gangs with ball-and-chain elements fully banned out amid civil rights scrutiny and labor reforms across the Southern states by the 1950s, with Alabama holding out until 1955 after Supreme Court challenges highlighted Eighth Amendment violations from cruel conditions. They were supplanted by lighter irons or institutional confinement. Isolated vestiges lingered for escape prevention in select maximum-security settings, but empirical concerns over injury and inefficacy accelerated adoption of modern restraints.
The ball and chain has lived on ever since in Halloween fancy dress and in popular comics, such as on the ankles of the four Dalton brothers in Lucky Luke.
AND NOW FOR THE FUTURE?
We can talk a lot about history, but there was a good reason, that the ball-and-chains was so widely used in the USA: it made the escape of convicts during labor assignment on building roads or railways unthinkable, labelled the prisoners in combination with coarse striped cotton uniforms and forced headshaves as what they were, and thus functioned as a deterrent to the general public, passing nearby while they toiled for up to ten hours daily, often from dawn to dusk, in the dust.
So, yes, let's reintroduce in all prison labor camps the ball-and-chain!
