penal labour#Prison labour

Punitive labour, also known as convict labour, prison labour, or hard labour, is a form of forced labour used in both the past and the present as an additional form of punishment beyond imprisonment alone. Punitive labour encompasses two types: productive labour, such as industrial work; and intrinsically pointless tasks used as primitive occupational therapy, punishment, or physical torment.

Sometimes authorities turn prison labour into an industry, as on a prison farm or in a prison workshop. In such cases, the pursuit of income from their productive labour may even overtake the preoccupation with punishment 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). This is sometimes not the case, and the income goes to defray the costs of the prison.

Victorian inmates commonly worked the treadmill. In some cases, it was productive labour to grind grain (an example of using convict labour to meet costs); in others, it served no purpose. Similar punishments included turning the crank machine or carrying cannonballs.{{cite web |url=http://www.inverarayjail.co.uk/the-jails-story/life-in-jail.aspx |title=Inveraray Jail and County Court, Life in Jail |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212220425/http://www.inverarayjail.co.uk/the-jails-story/life-in-jail.aspx |archive-date=12 February 2015 }} Semi-punitive labour also included oakum-picking: teasing apart old tarry rope to make caulking material for sailing vessels.

{{further|Penal Servitude Act}}

File:Pentonville Prison Treadmill 1895.jpg, London, 1895]]

Imprisonment with hard labour was first introduced into English law with the Criminal Law Act 1776 (16 Geo. 3. c. 43),{{cite web

|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/8a353961-049c-4507-8b50-0db0fbb85da2

|title=Public Act, 16 George III, c. 43

|publisher=The National Archives

|access-date=12 June 2016}} also known as the "Hulks Act", which authorised prisoners being put to work on improving the navigation of the River Thames in lieu of transportation to the North American colonies, which had become impossible due to the American War of Independence.{{cite web

|url=https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Punishment.jsp#new-forms-of-punishment

|title=Crime and Justice – Punishments at the Old Bailey

|last1=Emsley

|first1=Clive

|last2=Hitchcock

|first2=Tim

|last3=Shoemaker

|first3=Robert

|date=March 2015

|website=www.oldbaileyonline.org

|publisher=Old Bailey Proceedings Online

|access-date=12 June 2016}}

The Penal Servitude Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 99), long titled "An Act to substitute, in certain Cases, other Punishment in lieu of Transportation",[http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1896/act/14/enacted/en/print Short Titles Act 1853] substituted penal servitude for transportation to a distant British colony, except in cases where a person could be sentenced to transportation for life or for a term not less than fourteen years. Section 2 of the Penal Servitude Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. 3)[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/20-21/3/section/2 Section 2] of the Penal Servitude Act 1857 abolished the sentence of transportation in all cases and provided that in all cases a person who would otherwise have been liable to transportation would be liable to penal servitude instead. Section 1 of the Penal Servitude Act 1891[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/54-55/69/section/1 Section 1] of the Penal Servitude Act 1891 makes provision for enactments which authorise a sentence of penal servitude but do not specify a maximum duration. It must now be read subject to section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1948.

Sentences of penal servitude were served in convict prisons and were controlled by the Home Office and the Prison Commissioners. 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. Habitual offenders would be classified in the Recidivist class. Care was taken to ensure that convicts in one class did not mix with convicts in another.

Penal servitude included hard labour as a standard feature. Although it was prescribed for severe crimes (e.g. rape, attempted murder, wounding with intent, by the Offences against the Person Act 1861) 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. Notable recipients of hard labour under British law include the prolific writer Oscar Wilde (after his conviction for gross indecency), imprisoned in Reading Gaol.

Labour was sometimes useful. In Inveraray Jail from 1839 prisoners worked up to ten hours a day. Most male prisoners made herring nets or picked oakum (Inveraray was a busy herring port); those with skills were often employed where their skills could be used, such as shoemaking, tailoring or joinery. Female prisoners picked oakum, knitted stockings or sewed.

Forms of labour for punishment included the treadmill, shot drill, and the crank machine.

Treadmills for punishment were used for decades in British prisons beginning in 1818; they often took the form of large paddle wheels some {{convert|20|ft|m|0|abbr=off|order=flip}} in diameter with 24 steps around a {{convert|6|ft|m|1|adj=on|order=flip}} cylinder. Prisoners had to work six or more hours a day, climbing the equivalent of {{convert|5,000-14,000|ft|m|adj=pre|vertical|order=flip}}. While the purpose was mainly punitive, the mills could have been used to grind grain, pump water, or operate a ventilation system.{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Irene|title=The A-Z of Punishment and Torture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-1MSMxWekQC&pg=PT134|publisher=BeWrite Books|isbn=978-1-906609-43-6|page=134}}

Shot drill involved stooping without bending the knees, lifting a heavy cannonball slowly to chest height, taking three steps to the right, replacing it on the ground, stepping back three paces, and repeating, moving cannonballs from one pile to another.

The crank machine was a device which turned a crank by hand which in turn forced four large cups or ladles through sand inside a drum, doing nothing useful. Male prisoners had to turn the handle 6,000–14,400 times over the period of six hours a day (1.5–3.6 seconds per turn), as registered on a dial. The warder could make the task harder by tightening an adjusting screw.

File:Convict labourers in Australia in the early 20th century.jpg in the early 20th century]]

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.

As late as 1885, 75% of all prison inmates were involved in some sort of productive endeavour, mostly in private contract and leasing systems. By 1935, the portion of prisoners working had fallen to 44%, and almost 90% of those worked in state-run programmes rather than for private contractors.{{Cite journal |last=Reynolds |first=Morgan O. |author-link=Morgan Reynolds |year=1994|title=Using the Private Sector to Deter Crime|publisher=National Center for Policy Analysis |journal=Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies |volume=19 |issue=2 |page=33 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/636fd003fb31089403a2c13c7fab7799/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819661}}

According to section 45(1) of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998,[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/39/section/45 Section 45] of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 prisoners are excluded from the national minimum wage.

File:Coldbath-fields-oakum-room-mayhew-p301.jpg in London, circa 1864]]

Penal servitude was abolished for England and Wales by section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1948.[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/11-12/58/section/1 section 1(1)] of the Criminal Justice Act 1948 Every enactment conferring power on a court to pass a sentence of penal servitude in any case must be construed as conferring power to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding the maximum term of penal servitude for which a sentence could have been passed in that case immediately before the commencement of that Act.

Imprisonment with hard labour was abolished by section 1(2) of that Act.

Penal servitude was abolished for Northern Ireland by section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1953.[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/apni/1953/14/section/1 section 1(1)] of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1953 Every enactment which operated to empower a court to pass a sentence of penal servitude in any case now operates so as to empower that court to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding the maximum term of penal servitude for which a sentence could have been passed in that case immediately before the commencement of that Act.

Imprisonment with hard labour was abolished by section 1(2) of that Act.

Penal servitude was abolished in Scotland by [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/12-13-14/94/section/16/enacted section 16(1)] of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949 on 12 June 1950, and imprisonment with hard labour was abolished by section 16(2) of the act.

Every enactment conferring power on a court to pass a sentence of penal servitude in any case must be construed as conferring power to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding the maximum term of penal servitude for which a sentence could have been passed in that case immediately before 12 June 1950. But this does not empower any court, other than the High Court, to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term exceeding three years.

See [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1975/21/section/221 section 221] of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 and [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/46/section/307 section 307(4)] of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.

{{Further|Laogai|Re-education through labor|Xinjiang internment camps}}

In pre-Maoist China, a system of labour camps for political prisoners operated by the Kuomintang forces of Chiang Kai-shek existed during the Chinese Civil War from 1938 to 1949. Young activists and students accused of supporting Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were arrested and re-educated in the spirit of anti-communism at the Northwestern Youth Labor Camp.Mühlhahn, Klaus (2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=YXC2mmpfHgEC Criminal Justice in China: A History]. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press {{ISBN|978-0-674-03323-8}}. pp. 132–133.

After the CCP took power in 1949 and established the People's Republic of China, laojiao (Re-education through labour) and laogai (Reform through labour) was (and still is in some cases) used as a way to punish political prisoners. They were intended not only for criminals, but also for those deemed to be counter-revolutionary (political and/or religious prisoners).{{cite news |date=9 October 1984 |title=CNN In-Depth Specials – Visions of China – Red Giant: Labor camps reinforce China's totalitarian rule |publisher=Cnn.com |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/red.giant/prisons/wu.essay/ |access-date=6 September 2013}} Often these prisoners are used to produce products for export to the West.{{Cite journal |last=Finley |first=Joanne Smith |date=2022-09-01 |title=Tabula rasa: Han settler colonialism and frontier genocide in "re-educated" Xinjiang |journal=HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory |language=en |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=341–356 |doi=10.1086/720902 |issn=2575-1433 |s2cid=253268699 |doi-access=}}{{Cite journal |last=Clarke |first=Michael |date=2021-02-16 |title=Settler Colonialism and the Path toward Cultural Genocide in Xinjiang |journal=Global Responsibility to Protect |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=9–19 |doi=10.1163/1875-984X-13010002 |issn=1875-9858 |s2cid=233974395}}{{Cite book |last=Byler |first=Darren |title=Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City |date=2021-12-10 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-1-4780-2226-8 |language=en |doi=10.1215/9781478022268 |jstor=j.ctv21zp29g |s2cid=243466208}}{{Cite book |last=Byler |first=Darren |title=In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony |date=2021 |publisher=Columbia Global Reports |isbn=978-1-7359136-2-9 |jstor=j.ctv2dzzqqm}} Xinjiang internment camps represent a source of penal labour in China according to Adrien Zenz.{{Cite news |last=Lipes |first=Joshua |date=12 November 2019 |title=Expert Estimates China Has More Than 1,000 Internment Camps For Xinjiang Uyghurs |work=Radio Free Asia |url=https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/zenz-11122019161147.html |access-date=13 November 2019}}{{Unreliable source?|date=September 2024}} Since 2002, some prisoners have been eligible to receive payment for their labour.{{cite web |title=Beijing Prisons First to Pay Prisoners |url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Jul/37608.htm |access-date=2021-02-26 |website=www.china.org.cn}}{{Unreliable source?|date=September 2024}}

Prison inmates can workGuilbaud, Fabrice. "Working in Prison: Time as Experienced by Inmate-Workers", Revue française de sociologie, vol. vol. 51, no. 5, 2010, pp. 41–68. [https://www.academia.edu/10862975/Working_in_Prison_Time_as_Experienced_by_Inmate-Workers] either for the prison (directly, by performing tasks linked to prison operation, or for the Régie Industrielle des Établissements Pénitentiaires, which produces and sells merchandise) or for a private company, in the framework of a prison/company agreement for leasing inmate labour.{{cite web|author1=Alouti, Feriel|title=Prison labour: a vehicle for reintegration or exploitation?|url=https://www.equaltimes.org/prison-labour-a-vehicle-for?lang=en#.WhE-mUqWbIU|work=Equal Times|access-date=19 November 2017|date=31 December 2014}} Work ceased being compulsory for sentenced inmates in France in 1987. From the French Revolution of 1789, the prison system has been governed by a new penal code.Patricia O'Brien, The Promise of Punishment: Prisons in Nineteenth-century France, Princeton University Press, 1982 Some prisons became quasi-factories, in the nineteenth century, many discussions focused on the issue of competition between free labour and prison labour. Prison work was temporarily prohibited during the French Revolution of 1848. Prison labour then specialised in the production of goods sold to government departments (and directly to prisons, for example guards' uniforms), or in small low-skilled manual labour (mainly subcontracting to small local industries).Guilbaud, Fabrice. "To Challenge and Suffer: The Forms and Foundations of Working Inmates' Social Criticism", Sociétés contemporaines 3/2012 (No 87)[https://www.academia.edu/10862809/To_Challenge_and_Suffer_The_Forms_and_Foundations_of_Working_Inmates_Social_Criticism]

Forced labour was widely used in the African colonies. One of the most emblematic projects, the construction of the Congo-Ocean railway ({{convert|140|km|disp=or|abbr=in}}) cost the lives of 17,000 indigenous workers in 1929. In Cameroon, the 6,000 workers on the Douala-Yaoundé railway line had a mortality rate of 61.7% according to a report by the authorities. Forced labour was officially abolished in the colonies in 1946 under pressure from the Rassemblement démocratique africain and the French Communist Party. In fact, it lasted well into the 1950s.{{Cite news | url=https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2019/04/10/le-travail-force-colonial-dans-l-empire-francais-doit-etre-reconnu-comme-un-crime-contre-l-humanite_5448136_3232.html | title= le travail forcé colonial dans l'empire français doit être reconnu comme un crime contre l'humanité | newspaper=Le Monde.fr| date=10 April 2019 |language=fr |trans-title=Colonial forced labor in the French empire must be recognized as a crime against humanity }}

{{Main|Prisons in India}}

Only convicts sentenced to "rigorous imprisonment" have to undertake work during their prison term. A 2011 Hindustan Times article reported that 99% of convicts that receive such sentences rarely undertake work because most prisons in India do not have sufficient demand for prison labour.{{cite web |title=How rigorous is rigorous imprisonment? |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/how-rigorous-is-rigorous-imprisonment/story-iI9IUQGLwcZsoGckuIb3IL.html |website=Hindustan Times |access-date=4 May 2019 |language=en |date=24 July 2011}} In the Indian Penal Code prior to 1949, many sections prescribed penal servitude for life as a viable punishment. This was removed by Act No. XVII of 1949, known as the Criminal Law (Removal of Racial Discriminations) Act, 1949 {{Cite web |last=Government |first=(India) |date=1949 |title=Criminal Law (Removal of Racial Discriminations) Act, 1949 |url=https://www.indiacode.nic.in/repealed-act/repealed_act_documents/A1949-17.pdf }}

Penal servitude was abolished in Ireland by section 11(1) of the Criminal Law Act, 1997.The Criminal Law Act 1997, [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0014/sec0011.html#sec11 section 11(1)]

Every enactment conferring a power on a court to pass a sentence of penal servitude in any case must be treated as an enactment empowering that court to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding the maximum term of penal servitude for which a sentence could have been passed in that case immediately before the commencement of the Criminal Law Act 1997.

In the case of any enactment in force on 5 August 1891 (the date on which section 1 of the Penal Servitude Act 1891 came into force) whereby a court had, immediately before the commencement of the Criminal Law Act 1997, power to pass a sentence of penal servitude, the maximum term of imprisonment may not exceed five years or any greater term authorised by the enactment.

Imprisonment with hard labour was abolished by section 11(3) of that Act.

{{Main|Penal system of Japan}}

Most Japanese prisoners are required to engage in prison labour, often in manufacturing parts which are then sold cheaply to private Japanese companies. This practice has raised charges of unfair competition since the prisoners' wages are far below market rate.

During the early Meiji era, in Hokkaido many prisoners were forced to engage in road construction ({{Nihongo3||囚人道路|Shūjin dōro}}), mining,{{cite journal |last1= OBA |first1= Yoshirō |date= 2012-09-25|title= On Business History of Hokkaido Coal Mining and Shipping Corporation|url=http://hokuga.hgu.jp/dspace/handle/123456789/2121 |journal= 北海学園大学学園論集 |volume=153|issue= |pages= |doi=|access-date= October 6, 2020}} and railroad construction, which were severe. It was thought to be a form of unfree labour. It was replaced by indentured servitude ({{Nihongo3||タコ部屋労働|Takobeya-rōdō}}).{{cite journal |last= Hippoh |date=1971 |title= Building Industrial Relations System in Hokkaido (1872-1940) |url= https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2115/31226|first=Yasuyuki |journal= 北海道大學 經濟學研究 |volume= 21|issue=2 |pages= |doi= |access-date= October 9, 2020}}

(Hard) penal labour does not exist in the Netherlands, but a light variant consisting of community service (Dutch: taakstraf){{Cite book|last=Newman|first=Graeme R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2uK6bR9byVIC&q=community+service+taakstraf&pg=RA3-PA246|title=Crime and Punishment around the World [4 volumes]: [Four Volumes]|date=2010-10-19|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-35134-1|language=en}} is one of the primary punishments{{Cite web |author=Ministerie van Algemene Zaken |author-link=Ministry of General Affairs |date=2012-06-11 |title=Straffen en maatregelen voor volwassenen - Straffen en maatregelen - Rijksoverheid.nl |url=https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/straffen-en-maatregelen/straffen-en-maatregelen-voor-volwassenen |access-date=2022-11-18 |website=www.rijksoverheid.nl |language=nl-NL |trans-title=Punishments and measures for adults}}{{Which|date=February 2021}} which can be imposed on a convicted offender.{{cite web|url=http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0001854/EersteBoek/TitelII/Artikel9/geldigheidsdatum_27-12-2012 |title=wetten.nl – Wet- en regelgeving – Wetboek van Strafrecht – BWBR0001854 |language=nl |publisher=Wetten.overheid.nl |date=27 December 2012 |access-date=6 September 2013}} The maximum punishment is 240 hours, according to article 22c, part 2 of Wetboek van Strafrecht.{{cite web|url=http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0001854/EersteBoek/TitelII/Artikel22c/geldigheidsdatum_27-12-2012 |title=wetten.nl – Wet- en regelgeving – Wetboek van Strafrecht – BWBR0001854 |language=nl |publisher=Wetten.overheid.nl |date=27 December 2012 |access-date=6 September 2013}} The labour must be done in their free time. Reclassering Nederland keeps track of those who were sentenced to community services.{{cite web|url=http://www.reclassering.nl/ |title=Home :: Reclassering Nederland |publisher=Reclassering.nl |access-date=6 September 2013}}{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRGIfWLplB4 | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211114/KRGIfWLplB4| archive-date=2021-11-14 | url-status=live|title=Werkstraf – Reclassering Nederland |publisher=YouTube |date=31 August 2012 |access-date=6 September 2013}}{{cbignore}}

The [http://www.nzlii.org/nz/legis/hist_act/cja19541954n50199/ Criminal Justice Act 1954] abolished the distinction between imprisonment with and without hard labour and replaced 'reformative detention' with 'corrective training',{{cite web|url = http://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/7775/thesis_fulltext.pdf?sequence=1|title = Paparua men's prison: a social and political history|date = 2012|website = Department of Sociology|publisher = University of Canterbury, Christchurch|last = SYMON|first = TONI}} which was later abolished on 30 June 2002.{{cite web|title = 4 Custodial sentences and remands – Ministry of Justice, New Zealand|url = http://www.justice.govt.nz/publications/publications-archived/2004/conviction-and-sentencing-of-offenders-in-new-zealand-1994-to-2003/4-custodial-sentences-and-remands|website = www.justice.govt.nz|access-date = 1 January 2016}}

{{Main|Prisons in North Korea}}

North Korean prison camps can be differentiated into internment camps for political prisoners (Kwan-li-so in Korean) and reeducation camps (Kyo-hwa-so in Korean).{{cite web |title=The Hidden Gulag – Part Two: Kwan-li-so political panel-labor colonies (page 25 – 82), Part Three: Kyo-hwa-so long-term prison-labor facilities (page 82 – 110) |url=http://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/HRNK_HiddenGulag2_Web_5-18.pdf |access-date=11 November 2010 |work=The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea}} According to human rights organisations, the prisoners face forced hard labour in all North Korean prison camps.{{citation |title=Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today |date=15 July 2011 |url=http://nkdb.org/bbs1/data/publication/Political_Prison_Camp_in_North_Korea_Today.pdf |work=Database Center for North Korean Human Rights |pages=406–428 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130228031922/http://nkdb.org/bbs1/data/publication/Political_Prison_Camp_in_North_Korea_Today.pdf |access-date=7 February 2014 |archive-date=28 February 2013 |url-status=dead}} Chapter 4 Current Status of Compulsory Labor{{cite web |date=4 May 2011 |title=North Korea: Political Prison Camps |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa24/001/2011/en/ |access-date=24 November 2011 |work=Amnesty International}} The conditions are harsh and life-threatening{{cite web |title=2009 Human Rights Report: Democratic People's Republic of Korea |url=https://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eap/135995.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100324230107/http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eap/135995.htm |archive-date=24 March 2010 |access-date=4 May 2010 |work=U.S. Department of State}} and prisoners are subject to torture and inhumane treatment.{{cite news |author=Nicholas D. Kristof |date=14 July 1996 |title=Survivors Report Torture in North Korea Labor Camps |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/14/world/survivors-report-torture-in-north-korea-labor-camps.html |access-date=3 August 2012}}{{cite web |title=North Korea: Torture, death penalty and abductions |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA24/003/2009/en |access-date=4 May 2010 |work=Amnesty International|date=2 August 2009 }}

{{Main|Gulag|Population transfer in the Soviet Union|Katorga labor (Soviet Union)}}

Another historically significant example of forced labour was that of political prisoners and other persecuted people in labour 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.{{Cite journal |last1=Getty |first1=J. |last2=Rittersporn |first2=T. |last3=Zemskov |first3=V. |date=1993 |title=Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=98 |issue=4 |pages=1017–1049 |doi=10.2307/2166597 |jstor=2166597}} 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. These forced labour camps are called Gulags, an acronym for the government organisation that was in charge of them.{{Cite book |last=Applebaum |first=Anne |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55203139 |title=Gulag : a history |date=2004 |isbn=1-4000-3409-4 |edition=First Anchor books |location=New York |publisher=Anchor Books |page=19 |oclc=55203139}} The Soviet Gulag camps were a continuation of the punitive labour system of Imperial Russia known as katorga, but on a larger scale. The kulaks were some of the first victims of the Soviet Union's forced labour system. Starting in 1930, nearly two million kulaks were taken to camps in unpopulated regions of the Soviet Union and forced to work in very harsh conditions.{{Cite book |last=Applebaum |first=Anne |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55203139 |title=Gulag : a history |date=2004 |isbn=1-4000-3409-4 |edition=First Anchor books |location=New York |publisher=Anchor Books |page=98 |oclc=55203139}} Most inmates in the Gulag were ordinary criminals: between 1934 and 1953 there were only two years, 1946 and 1947, when the number of counter-revolutionary prisoners exceeded that of ordinary criminals, partly because the Soviet state had amnestied 1 million ordinary criminals as part of the victory celebrations in 1945.{{cite book |last=Roberts |first=Geoffrey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlRjy4qnH6cC |title=Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953 |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0300150407}}{{rp|343}} At the height of the purges in the 1930s political prisoners made up 12% of the camp population; at the time of Joseph Stalin's death just over one-quarter. In the 1930s, many ordinary criminals were guilty of crimes that would have been punished with a fine or community service in the 1920s. They were victims of harsher laws from the early 1930s, driven, in part, by the need for more prison camp labour.{{cite book |last=Overy |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32Vy2Fj4KFUC |title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia |publisher=W. W. Norton Company, Inc |year=2004 |isbn=9780141912240}}{{rp|930}}

The Gulags constituted a large portion of the Soviet Union's overall economy. Over half of the tin produced in the Soviet Union was produced by the Gulags. In 1951, the Gulags extracted over four times as much gold as the rest of the economy. Gulag camps also produced all of the diamonds and platinum in the Soviet Union, and forced labourers in the Gulags constituted approximately one fifth of all construction labourers in the Soviet Union.{{Cite book |title=The Economics of Forced Labor : The Soviet Gulag |date=2003 |publisher=Hoover Institution Press |editor1-first=Paul R. |editor1-last=Gregory |editor2-first=Valery |editor2-last=Lazarev |isbn=978-0-8179-3943-4 |location=Stanford, CA |page=8 |oclc=843883154 |ol=9650930M}}

Between 1930 and 1960, the Soviet regime created many labour camps in Siberia and Central Asia.{{cite web |title=Gulag: Understanding the Magnitude of What Happened |url=http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/HL-800.cfm |access-date=16 July 2010 |archive-date=2 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100302223535/http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/HL-800.cfm |url-status=unfit }}[http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/01/news/kazakh.php "Politics, economics and time bury memories of the Kazakh gulag"]. International Herald Tribune, 1 January 2007 There were at least 476 separate camp complexes, each one comprising hundreds, even thousands of individual camps.Anne Applebaum. "Inside the Gulag". {{cite web |title=Anne Applebaum -- Inside the Gulag |url=http://www.anneapplebaum.com/communism/2000/06_15_nyrb_gulag.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015012139/http://www.anneapplebaum.com/communism/2000/06_15_nyrb_gulag.html |archive-date=15 October 2008 |access-date=16 July 2010}} It is estimated that there may have been 5–7 million people in these camps at any one time. In later years the camps also held victims of Joseph Stalin's purges as well as World War II prisoners. It is possible that approximately 10% of prisoners died each year.{{cite web |title=The National Archives | Heroes & Villains | Stalin & industrialisation | Background |url=http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/heroesvillains/background/g4_background.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907233043/http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/heroesvillains/background/g4_background.htm |archive-date=7 September 2008 |access-date=6 September 2013 |publisher=Learningcurve.gov.uk}} Out of the 91,000 German soldiers captured after the Battle of Stalingrad, only 6,000 survived the Gulag and returned home.{{cite web |date=26 July 2011 |title=German POWs in Allied Hands |url=http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/germanpow.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120412040201/http://worldwar2database.com/html/germanpow.htm |archive-date=12 April 2012 |access-date=6 September 2013 |work=The World War II Multimedia Database}} Many of these prisoners, however, had died of illness contracted during the siege of Stalingrad and in the forced march into captivity.Antony Beevor, Stalingrad More than half of all deaths occurred in 1941–1944, mostly as a result of the deteriorating food and medicine supplies caused by wartime shortages.{{cite book |last=Overy |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32Vy2Fj4KFUC&pg=PT927 |title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia |publisher=W. W. Norton Company, Inc. |year=2004 |isbn=9780141912240}}{{rp|927}}

Probably the worst of the camp complexes were the three built north of the Arctic Circle at Kolyma, Norilsk and Vorkuta.{{cite web |last=Applebaum |first=Anne |title=Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps |url=http://www.arlindo-correia.org/041003.html |access-date=6 September 2013 |publisher=Arlindo-Correia}}{{cite web |title=Gulag – Infoplease |url=http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0921567.html |website=www.infoplease.com}} Prisoners in Soviet labour camps were sometimes worked to death with a mix of extreme production quotas, brutality, hunger and the harsh elements.[http://www.artukraine.com/paintings/getman.htm "The Gulag Collection: Paintings of the Soviet Penal System By Former Prisoner Nikolai Getman"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722083646/http://www.artukraine.com/paintings/getman.htm|date=22 July 2009}} In all, more than 18 million people passed through the Gulag,{{cite news |last=Merritt |first=Steven |date=11 May 2003 |title=The Other Killing Machine |newspaper=New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00EED61F3DF932A25756C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print |access-date=6 September 2013}} with further millions being deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union.{{cite web |last=Parfitt |first=Tom |date=1 March 2003 |title=Stalin's forgotten victims stuck in the gulag |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F03%2F02%2Fwgulag02.xml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420231723/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F03%2F02%2Fwgulag02.xml |archive-date=20 April 2008 |access-date=6 September 2013 |work=The Daily Telegraph}} The fatality rate was as high as 80% during the first months in many camps. Immediately after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, the NKVD massacred about 100,000 prisoners who awaited deportation either to NKVD prisons in Moscow or to the Gulag.

Inmates in Taiwan are required to work during their stay in prison but receive a meager wage for their labour.{{cite web |title=Prison Act |url=https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=I0040001 |publisher=Ministry of Justice |date=2020-01-15 |website=law.moj.gov.tw}}

{{Main|Penal labor in the United States}}

The 13th Amendment of the US Constitution, enacted in 1865, explicitly allows penal labour as it states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction".Tsesis, The Thirteenth Amendment and American Freedom (2004), pp. 17 & 34. "It rendered all clauses directly dealing with slavery null and altered the meaning of other clauses that had originally been designed to protect the institution of slavery."[https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html "The Thirteenth Amendment"], Primary Documents in American History, Library of Congress. Retrieved 15 February 2007{{Cite journal|last=Adamson|first=Christopher|date=1983|title=Punishment after Slavery: Southern State Penal Systems, 1865–1890|journal=Social Problems|volume=30|issue=5|pages=555–569|jstor=800272|doi=10.2307/800272}} Unconvicted detainees awaiting trial cannot be forced to participate in forced rehabilitative labour programs in prison as it violates the Thirteenth Amendment. Penal labour is also sometimes used as a punishment in the US military.{{cite web | url=http://www.military.com/news/article/malingerer-gets-90-days-hard-labor.html | title='Malingerer' Gets 90 Days Hard Labor | publisher=Military.com | date=2 September 2009 | access-date=4 September 2014 | archive-date=10 May 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510200137/http://www.military.com/news/article/malingerer-gets-90-days-hard-labor.html}}

File:Convicts Leased to Harvest Timber.png

The "convict lease" system became popular throughout the South following the American Civil War and continued into the 20th century. During Jim Crow, former slaves were often arrested and worked in much the same way as before the war. Since the impoverished state governments could not afford penitentiaries, they leased out prisoners to work at private firms. Reformers abolished convict leasing in the 20th-century Progressive Era. At the same time, labour has been required at many prisons.

In 1934, federal prison officials concerned about growing unrest in prisons lobbied to create a work program. Private companies got involved again in 1979, when Congress passed a law establishing the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program which allows employment opportunities for prisoners in some circumstances.{{cite news|last1=Walshe|first1=Sadhbh|title=How US prison labour pads corporate profits at taxpayers' expense|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/06/prison-labor-pads-corporate-profits-taxpayers-expense|access-date=14 May 2015|work=The Guardian|date=2012}}

Federal Prison Industries (FPI; doing business as UNICOR since 1977) is a wholly owned United States government corporation created in 1934 that uses penal labour from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to produce goods and services. FPI is restricted to selling its products and services, which include clothing, furniture, electrical components and vehicle parts, to federal government agencies and has no access to the commercial market so as not to compete against private employment.{{cite book | last = McCollum | first = William | title = Federal Prison Industries, Inc: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives | publisher = DIANE Publishing | year = 1996 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=yypS_JuZ0XMC&q=%22Federal+Prison+Industries,+Inc.%22 | isbn = 978-0-7567-0060-7| page = 1 }} State prison systems also use penal labour and have their own penal labour divisions.

From 2010 to 2015{{cite news |last=Hedges |first=Chris |date=22 June 2015 |title=America's Slave Empire|url=https://www.truthdig.com/articles/americas-slave-empire-2/|work=Truthdig |access-date=13 September 2018|author-link=Chris Hedges}} and again in 2016{{cite web | url=https://theintercept.com/2016/09/16/the-largest-prison-strike-in-u-s-history-enters-its-second-week/ | title=The Largest Prison Strike in U.S. History Enters its Second Week| date=16 September 2016}} and 2018,{{cite news |last=Lopez |first=German |date=22 August 2018 |title=America's prisoners are going on strike in at least 17 states|url=https://www.vox.com/2018/8/17/17664048/national-prison-strike-2018|work=Vox |access-date=13 September 2018}} some prisoners in the US refused to work, protesting for better pay, better conditions and for the end of forced labour. Strike leaders have been punished with indefinite solitary confinement.{{cite news |last= Pilkington|first=Ed|date=21 August 2018 |title=US inmates stage nationwide prison labor strike over 'modern slavery'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/20/prison-labor-protest-america-jailhouse-lawyers-speak|work=The Guardian |access-date=13 September 2018 }}{{cite news |last= Fryer |first=Brooke|date=5 September 2018 |title=US inmates sent to solitary confinement over 'prison slavery' strike|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2018/09/05/us-inmates-sent-solitary-confinement-over-prison-slavery-strike|work=NITV News|access-date=13 September 2018 }} Forced prison labour occurs in both public and private prisons. The prison labour industry grosses over $1 billion per year selling products that inmates make, while inmates are paid very little or nothing in return.Marie Gottschalk. [https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10731.html Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics]. Princeton University Press, 2014. [https://books.google.com/books?id=CzDFCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA61 pp. 59–61] {{ISBN|978-0691170831}} In California, 2,500 incarcerated workers fight wildfires for $1 an hour through the CDCR's Conservation Camp Program; the voluntary participation of prisoners in this work saves the state as much as $100 million a year.{{cite news |date=12 September 2018 |title=A New Form of Slavery? Meet Incarcerated Firefighters Battling California's Wildfires for $1 an Hour|url=https://www.democracynow.org/2018/9/12/a_new_form_of_slavery_meet|work=Democracy Now! |access-date=13 September 2018 }}

The prison strikes of 2018, sponsored by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, are considered the largest in the country's history. In particular, inmates objected to being excluded from the 13th Amendment which forces them to work for pennies a day, a condition they assert is tantamount to "modern-day slavery".{{cite news |last=Pilkington |first=Ed |date= 23 August 2018|title=Major prison strike spreads across US and Canada as inmates refuse food|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/23/prison-strike-us-canada-forced-labor-protest-activism|work=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209085346/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/23/prison-strike-us-canada-forced-labor-protest-activism |access-date=13 September 2018|archive-date=9 February 2021 }}{{cite news |last=Corley |first=Cheryl |date=21 August 2018|title=U.S. Inmates Plan Nationwide Prison Strike To Protest Labor Conditions|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/640630606/u-s-inmates-plan-nationwide-prison-strike-to-protest-labor-conditions|work=NPR |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204012517/https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/640630606/u-s-inmates-plan-nationwide-prison-strike-to-protest-labor-conditions |access-date=13 September 2018|archive-date=4 February 2021 }}{{cite news |last1= Bozelko |first1=Chandra|last2= Lo|first2=Ryan|date=25 August 2018 |title=As prison strikes heat up, former inmates talk about horrible state of labor and incarceration|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2018/08/25/nationwide-prison-strikes-labor-inmates-policing-usa/1085896002/|work=USA Today |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204053909/https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2018/08/25/nationwide-prison-strikes-labor-inmates-policing-usa/1085896002/|access-date=13 September 2018|archive-date=4 February 2021}}

Correctional standards promulgated by the American Correctional Association provide that sentenced inmates be required to work and be paid for that work.{{cite journal|title=Perspectives on Paying the Federal Minimum Wage|journal=Prisoner Labor|date=1993|page=2|url=http://www.gao.gov/assets/220/217999.pdf}} Some states, such as Arizona, require all able-bodied inmates to work.{{cite book|title=Constituent Services Informational Handbook|date=2013|publisher=Corrections ADC|page=16|url=https://corrections.az.gov/sites/default/files/guidebook_2013_inter.pdf|access-date=14 May 2015}}

Much of the labour presently undertaken by prisoners is in the form of "prison housework" rather than economically productive activity.{{cite journal |last1=Gleissner |first1=John Dewar |title=How to Create American Manufacturing Jobs |journal=Tennessee Journal of Law & Policy |date=2013 |volume=9 |issue=3 |page=Article 4 |url=https://trace.tennessee.edu/tjlp/vol9/iss3/4}}

File:Inmateswork.JPGian prison]]

In a number of penal systems, inmates have the possibility of getting jobs. This may serve several purposes. One goal is to give an inmate a meaningful way to occupy their prison time and a possibility of earning some money. It may also play an important role in resocialisation as inmates may acquire skills that would help them to find a job after release. It may also have an important penological function: reducing the monotony of prison life for the inmate, keeping inmates busy on productive activities, rather than, for example, potentially violent or antisocial activities, and helping to increase inmate fitness, and thus decrease health problems, rather than letting inmates succumb to a sedentary lifestyle.{{cite journal|last=Guilbaud|first=Fabrice|title=Working in Prison: Time as Experienced by Inmates-Workers|journal=Revue Française de Sociologie|volume=51|issue=5|pages=41–68|jstor=40731128|year=2010|doi=10.3917/rfs.515.0041}}

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 argued to be no preparation for work after release.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/criminological-notes-more-to-prison-work-than-sewing-mailbags-1078637.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/criminological-notes-more-to-prison-work-than-sewing-mailbags-1078637.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=More to prison work than sewing mailbags|last=Simon|first=Frances|date=6 March 1999|work=The Independent|publisher=Independent News and Media Ltd.|access-date=8 February 2009|location=London}} Classic 20th-century American prisoner work involved making license plates; the task is still being performed by inmates in certain areas.{{cite news|url=http://www.gazette.com/articles/plates_9731___article.html/job_prison.html|title=Colorado inmates: Making license plates since 1926|last=Brown|first=Andrea|date=5 March 2006|work=The Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO)|access-date=7 December 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130123221221/http://www.gazette.com/articles/plates_9731___article.html/job_prison.html|archive-date=23 January 2013}}

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|quote = Many businesses, large and small, already make use of prison workshops to produce high quality goods and services and do so profitably. They are not only investing in prisons but in the future of their companies and the country as a whole. I urge others to follow their lead and seize the opportunity that working prisons offer.

|source = —David Cameron, UK Prime Minister{{cite web|last=Cameron|first=David|title=A message from the PM|url=http://www.one3one.justice.gov.uk/a-fair-approach/a-message-from-the-pm/|publisher=ONE3ONE Solutions|access-date=10 August 2012|date=24 May 2005}}

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A significant amount of controversy has arisen with regard to the use of prison labour if the prison in question is privatised. Many of these privatised prisons exist in the Southern United States, where roughly 7% of the prison population are within privately owned institutions.{{Cite journal|last=Wood|first=Phillip J.|date=1 September 2007|title=Globalization and Prison Privatization: Why Are Most of the World's For-Profit Adult Prisons to Be Found in the American South?|journal=International Political Sociology|language=en|volume=1|issue=3|pages=222–239|doi=10.1111/j.1749-5687.2007.00015.x|issn=1749-5687}} Goods produced through this penal labour are regulated through the Ashurst-Sumners Act which criminalises the interstate transport of such goods.

The advent of automated production in the 20th and 21st century has reduced the availability of unskilled physical work for inmates.

• Slavery in the 21st century
• Ashurst-Sumners Act
• Chain gang
• Community service
• Convict lease
• Coproduction of public services by service users and communities
• Galley slave
• Monopoly on violence
• Trusty system
• UNICOR

{{Reflist}}

• Douglas A. Blackmon. Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil War to World War II (2008)
• Matthew J. Mancini. One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the American South, 1866–1928 (1996)
• Alex Lichtenstein. Twice the Work of Free Labor: The Political Economy of Convict Labor in the New South (1996)
• David M. Oshinsky. "Worse than Slavery": Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice (1996).
• Bloom, D. (2006). Employment Focused Programs for Ex-Prisoners: What Have We Learned, What Are We Learning, and Where Should We Go From Here? New York: National Poverty Center.

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/e653bb16-a422-4e29-ae38-78b00df49844/1/doc/10-669_opn.pdf#xml=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/e653bb16-a422-4e29-ae38-78b00df49844/1/hilite/ McGarry v. Pallito 2nd Cir 2012]{{Dead link|date=June 2021}}

{{Unfree labour}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penal Labour}}