Penal labour or penal servitude is a form of unfree labour. Unfree labour is a generic or collective term for those work relations especially in modern or early modern history in which people are employed against their will The term may refer to two different notions: labour as a form of punishment and labour as a form of occupation of convicts.
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Punitive labour
Punitive labour occupies a spectrum between two types: productive labour, such as industrial work; and intrinsically pointless tasks used as primitive occupational therapy and/or physical torment. In Victorian prisons, inmates commonly were made to work the treadmill: in some cases, this was productive labour to grind grain; in others, it served no purpose. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities The word Treadmill, originally a type of mill operated by a person treading steps of a wheel to grind grain now designates a piece of indoor sporting equipment for running without Similar punishments included the crank machine (a device where prisoner had to turn a crank that merely pushed paddles through sand in a drum), and shot drill, carrying cannonballs around for no purpose. A crank is an arm at right angles to a shaft (an Axle or spindle by which motion is imparted to or received from the shaft it is also used to change circular into Reciprocating [1] Semi-punitive labour also included oakum-picking: teasing apart old tarry rope to make caulking material for sailing vessels. Oakum is a preparation of Tarred Fibre used in Shipbuilding, forcaulking or packing the joints of timbers in wooden vessels and thedeck planking of iron Caulking is a process used to seal the seams in Wooden Boats or ships and riveted iron or steel ships in order to make them watertight
Prison labour
Convict or prison labour (also called hard labour) is form of unfree labour used in both past and present as an additional form of punishment beyond imprisonment alone. A convict is "a person found guilty of a Crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison" sometimes referred to in Slang A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned and usually deprived of a range of Manual labour (or manual labor) is physical work done with the hands especially in an unskilled job such as fruit and vegetable picking road building or any
Convicts subjected to forced labour have often been regarded with lack of sympathy, because of the social stigma attached to people regarded as "common criminals" and a general perception that it must be deserved through the severity of the crime. Social stigma is severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or Beliefs that are against cultural norms. In some countries and historical periods, however, prison labour has been forced upon people who have been: victims of prejudice, convicted of political crimes, convicted of "victimless crimes", or people who committed theft or related offences because they lacked any other means of subsistence — categories of people for whom compassion is typically called for. Compassion is a profound human Emotion prompted by the pain of others
In the UK in the 19th century, for instance, hard labour became a standard feature of penal servitude as penal transportation was phased out. Transportation or penal transportation refers to the deporting of Convicted Criminals to a Penal colony, for example by France Although it was prescribed for severe crimes (e. g. rape, attempted murder, malicious wounding, per the 1861 Offences against the Persons Act) it was also widely applied in cases of minor crime such as petty theft and vagrancy, as well as victimless behaviour deemed harmful to the fabric of society. In Criminal law, theft (also known as stealing or filching) is the illegal taking of another person's Property without that person's freely-given See also Vagrancy (biology for an alternative use of the term Notable recipients of forced labour under British law include Oscar Wilde (after his conviction for gross indecency) and John William Gott (a terminally ill trouser salesman convicted of blasphemy). Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900 was an Irish Playwright, Novelist, poet and Author of Decency is conformity to sociocultural standards of conduct and speech John William Gott (1866–1922 was the last person in Britain to be sent to prison for Blasphemy. Blasphemy is the disrespectful use of the name of one or more gods.
The British penal colonies in Australia between 1788 and 1868 provide a major historical example of convict labour, as described above: during that period, Australia received thousands of transported convict labourers, many of whom had received harsh sentences for minor misdemeanours in Britain or Ireland. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A penal colony is a Settlement used to detain Prisoners and generally use them for Penal labour in an economically underdeveloped part of the state's For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Year 1788 ( MDCCLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap Year 1868 ( MDCCCLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Transportation or penal transportation refers to the deporting of Convicted Criminals to a Penal colony, for example by France Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world
Sometimes authorities turn prison labour into an industry, as on a prison farm. A prison farm is a large Correctional facility where Hard labor convicts are put to economical use in a 'farm' (in the wide sense of a productive unit usually In such cases, the pursuit of income from their productive labour may even overtake the preoccupation with punishment and/or reeducation as such of the prisoners, who are then at risk of being exploited as slave-like cheap labour (profit may be minor after expenses, e. g. on security).
The British Penal Servitude Act of 1853 substituted penal servitude for transportation. Sentences of penal servitude were served in convict prisons and were controlled by the Home Office and the Prison Commissioners. The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for security and order After sentencing, convicts would be classified according to the seriousness of the offence of which they were convicted and their criminal record. First time offenders would be classified in the Star class; persons not suitable for the Star class, but without serious convictions would be classified in the intermediate class; and habitual offenders would be classified in the Recidivist class. Recidivism ( IPA: /ɹɪˈsɪdɪvɪzm̩/ From recidive + ism, from Latin recidīvus "recurring" from re- Care was taken to ensure that convicts in one class did not mix with convicts in another.
Labor camps
Another historically significant example of forced labour was that of political prisoners and other persecuted people in labor camps, especially in totalitarian regimes since the 20th century where millions of convicts were exploited and often killed by hard labour and bad living conditions. Nikolai Getman (Николай Гетман Микола Ґетьман an artist was born in 1917 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and died at his home in Orel, A political prisoner is someone held in Prison or otherwise detained perhaps under House arrest, for his or her involvement in political activity A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in Penal labor. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on
The best-known example of this is the concentration camp system run by Nazi Germany in Europe during World War II. Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Nazi camps served a variety of purposes, the most notorious being extermination camps and labour camps. Extermination camps were two types of facilities that Nazi Germany built during World War II for the systematic killing of millions of people in what has become
For much of the history of the Soviet Union and other Communist states, political opponents of these governments were often sentenced to forced labour camps. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Communist state is a term used by many Political scientists to describe a Form of government in which the State operates under a one-party system A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in Penal labor. The Soviet Gulag camps were a continuation of the punitive labour system of Imperial Russia known as katorga, but on a larger scale. The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Katorga (ка́торга from medieval Greek: katergon κάτεργον Galley) was the precursor to the Gulag system
See Laogai and Reeducation through labour for the People's Republic of China's case. Laogai ( the abbreviation for Láo dòng Gǎi zào (勞動改造 which means "reform through labor" is a slogan of the Chinese criminal Reeducation through labor ( laodong jiaoyang 劳动教养 abbreviated láojiào 劳教 is a system of administrative detentions in the People's Republic Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES
Non-punitive prison labour
In a number of penal systems the convicts have the possibility of a job. This may serve several purposes. Some say it gives a convict a meaningful occupation and a possibility of earning some money. It may also play an important role in resocialization: convicts may acquire skills that would help them to find a job after release. Others argue that it is an opportunity for corporations to generate profits from a captive population[1].
The classic occupation in 20th century British prisons was sewing mailbags. This has diversified into areas such as engineering, furniture making, desktop publishing, repairing wheelchairs and producing traffic signs, but such opportunities are not widely available, and many prisoners who work perform routine prison maintenance tasks (such as in the prison kitchen) or obsolete unskilled assembly work (such as in the prison laundry) that is no preparation for work after release. [2]
See also
References
- ^ Hard Labour at Inveraray Jail in 19th Century Scotland, online museum exhibit
- ^ More to prison work than sewing mailbags, Frances Simon, The Independent, London, March 6, 1999
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