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100-523: Service in penal military units is generally considered a form of punishment, discipline, or penal labour , used in lieu of, or offered as an alternative to, imprisonment or capital punishment . Penal units have historically been used as disposable cannon fodder , treated poorly or with little regard and used in compromising or dangerous situations (commonly suicide missions such as demining or forlorn hope advance parties), as march battalions that maintain replacement personnel as reserves , or kept in

200-458: 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. The British penal colonies in Australia between 1788 and 1868 provide

300-532: A death sentence (for retreat) commuted was automatically reassigned to penal units, greatly increasing the number of soldiers available to the Strafbataillon . The effectiveness of Strafbataillone were mixed. The combination of criminals, political prisoners, and undisciplined soldiers that made up a Strafbataillon often required harsh measures to be imposed for unit cohesion to be maintained. Strafbataillone were often ordered to undertake high risk missions on

400-482: 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) 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

500-646: A form of stay of execution . These units, referred to as "special departments" or the generic term Strafbataillon , were overseen by the German military police . Prior to World War II, there were nine Strafbataillone within the Wehrmacht . The primary role of a Strafbataillon was to provide front line support. As the war progressed, the size of Strafbataillon companies dramatically increased in size due to changes in German military policy. Under such policies, any soldier who had

600-482: A fuck" than "we don't care" (**) in other versions "soldier" (soldat) . The Bat' d'Af was a separate corps from the French Foreign Legion . Formed in 1832 ; disbanded in 1940 Formed in 1832 ; disbanded in 1927. Created by order of 3 June 1832 at Birkhadem, stationed at Bougie, then at Laghouat (Algiers) in 19005. On 1 January 1849, the 2nd BILA, under the command of battalion commander Etienney,

700-622: 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. According to section 45(1) of

800-511: A mix of extreme production quotas , brutality , hunger and the harsh elements. In all, more than 18 million people passed through the Gulag , with further millions being deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union. 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 ,

900-425: 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

1000-535: A private company, in the framework of a prison/company agreement for leasing inmate labour. 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. 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

1100-550: A proper felony waiver . In 2021, the Florida Legislature proposed a bill that would formally permit first-time offenders 25-years-old or younger to enlist instead of facing imprisonment, though it did not pass. In the modern day, the practice of fielding penal military units has largely stopped, with most militaries discouraging or outright prohibiting the acceptance of convicts, though some militaries accept ex-convicts provided they fulfill certain requirements, such as having

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1200-405: A proper waiver . For example, a U.S. military recruiter told The Daily Beast in 2018 that recruitment candidates can have "one non-violent felony as an adult", and that "some of the best and most capable candidates we get require a waiver". However, though rare, the practice of accepting convicts into armed forces has continued or been made permissible in some jurisdictions and situations. During

1300-669: 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". Unconvicted detainees awaiting trial cannot be forced to participate in forced rehabilitative labour programs in prison as it violates the Thirteenth Amendment. The " convict lease " system became popular throughout the South following the American Civil War and continued into

1400-471: A regular unit. Rewards and incentives for convicts to serve in a penal unit vary—often expungement , commutation , stay of execution , or a pardon —though penal units used as punishment typically lack those by nature. The first known penal military units were recorded in imperial China . Since then, several nations and armed forces across history and the world have also fielded penal units of varying sizes with varying roles. Penal units are extremely rare in

1500-508: 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 . 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

1600-538: 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 section 16(1) of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949 on 12 June 1950, and imprisonment with hard labour

1700-434: 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. 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

1800-603: A short dark blue jacket ( veste ) was authorised with the battalion number in yellow on the collar. The medium blue greatcoat of the French infantry was worn on the march. A full dress uniform of dark blue tunic and red trousers (white trousers in hot weather) could be worn on parade or for off-duty wear. From World War I onwards the Bat' d'Af' were distinguished by "violet" (light purple/red) collar patch braiding and numbers on their khaki drill uniforms. From 1915, in common with other units of

1900-664: 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

2000-474: 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

2100-744: A term with the BILA before continuing their careers with other regiments. The cadres noirs ("black cadres") were former bataillonnaires who chose to remain with the Bat' d'Af' on promotion, after finishing their original terms of service. The Bat' d'Af' should not be confused with the compagnies d'exclus ("companies of the excluded" i.e. thieves) of the French Army, which were stationed at Aîn-Sefra in Southern Algeria. These penal units consisted of military convicts condemned to five years or more hard labour and were judged unworthy to carry weapons. By contrast

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2200-585: A viable punishment. This was removed by Act No. XVII of 1949, known as the Criminal Law (Removal of Racial Discriminations) Act, 1949 Penal servitude was abolished in Ireland by section 11(1) of the Criminal Law Act, 1997 . 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

2300-503: A volunteer who enlisted in the Train (Army Transport Corps) during the 1880s where he was condemned for insubordination , was sent for 33 months in the Bat' d'Af'. In 1890, he published a novel named Biribi where he described, in possibly exaggerated terms, the harsh treatment and corporal punishments which he endured in the Bat' d'Af' . Many Bataillonnaires displayed tattoos covering much of

2400-408: 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

2500-559: 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. Out of the 91,000 German soldiers captured after the Battle of Stalingrad , only 6,000 survived the Gulag and returned home. Many of these prisoners, however, had died of illness contracted during

2600-509: The Armée d'Afrique , a more practical khaki uniform was adopted for service on the Western Front . Khaki pith helmets appeared during the 1920s and 30s as an alternative to the kepi, which itself could be worn with khaki or white covers according to the occasion. White dress uniforms were reserved for cadres . A peculiarity of the BILA was that until 1952 the various battalions did not have

2700-520: The Auburn Prison System 's main architects Elam Lynds, stating: ...Lynds aimed for profit. To him, a prisoner was like a slave, a machine, or a river: a resource to be exploited. Therefore the extraction of prisoners' labor, like that of slaves, should be limited by only the capacity of their human bodies. He believed that incarcerated men had no inherent right to benefit from their labor -vocationally, morally, or otherwise. Lynds's ideal prisoner

2800-720: The Bats d'Af when called up for military service. However those who distinguished themselves "in the face of the enemy", or who had concluded more than eight months of service with good behaviour in the Light Infantry of Africa, had the option of transferring to regular units of the army to complete their term of enlistment. "Yesterday, they were " Apaches " (gangsters), anarchists, professional antimilitarists and thieves, delinquents filled with hatred of bourgeois society, men contemptuous of all morality, shirkers, pimps, knife-handlers, pickpockets... Today, they are soldiers." Georges Darien ,

2900-530: The Bats d'Af . In opposition to prevailing assumptions about criminality at the time, influenced by Cesare Lombroso 's eugenistic theories, the disciplinary battalions of the French Republic were supposed to show that criminals could be redeemed through hard work and combat. Legislation dated 21 March 1905 specified that individuals sentenced to prison terms of six months or more, or who had been convicted of any offence twice or more, should be drafted into

3000-473: The British Armed Forces were mobilized for military service. Courts offered defendants the option of enlisting to avoid imprisonment, while young offenders in borstals and adult prisoners were granted early release for their service. Though government officials publicly claimed criminals were unfit for service, and prisoners were viewed as lacking "the sense of duty that encouraged other men to enlist",

3100-819: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were arrested and re-educated in the spirit of anti-communism at the Northwestern Youth Labor Camp . 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). Often these prisoners are used to produce products for export to

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3200-689: The Crimean war plus the Mexican Intervention ; and won honours during the First World War and in the various colonial wars. They also assumed the role of construction troops, building not only desert forts but also roads and bridges. "Biribi" reached a peak between the 1880s and 90s, when it played its most conspicuous role. In May 1888 the corps was enlarged to 5 battalions, each of 6 companies. Three battalions (3rd, 4th and 5th) were based in Tunisia while

3300-501: 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. State prison systems also use penal labour and have their own penal labour divisions. This has changed over time since

3400-774: The Greco-Bactrian kingdom of Dayuan in 102 BC. Dedicated penal units were first envisioned during the Napoleonic era of warfare, as large armies formed of conscripts often suffered from disciplinary problems. Soldiers who refused to face the enemy were seen as detrimental to the cohesion of the army and as a disgrace to the nation. The formation of penal battalions was seen as a way of disciplining an army and keeping soldiers in line. In addition, many nations conscripted criminals into penal battalions in lieu of imprisoning or executing them during wartime to better utilize national manpower. Such military units were treated with little regard by

3500-548: 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 wage for their labour. 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

3600-507: The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 , prisoners are excluded from the national minimum wage. Penal servitude was abolished for England and Wales by 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

3700-567: The Redshirts recruiting convicts and revolutionaries from prisons into penal regiments known as Battaglioni degli imprigionati ("Battalions of the Imprisoned" or "Prisoners Battalion".) Prior to the early 1900s, the Portuguese Empire relied largely on military convicts to augment the regular and indigenous troops employed to provide garrisons for its overseas colonies. During World War I ,

3800-568: The Russian invasion of Ukraine , for instance, the Armed Forces of Ukraine permitted the recruitment of Ukrainian prisoners with prior combat experience, and Russian private military company Wagner Group began hiring Russian inmates to fill their ranks. Penal labour Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour . The work may be light or hard, depending on

3900-562: The Wehrmacht to join resistance groups. Following Operation Barbarossa and the entry of the Soviet Union into World War II, the Red Army began to seriously consider the implementation of penal military units. These efforts resulted in the creation of Shtrafbat , penal military units composed of sentenced soldiers, political prisoners, and others deemed to be expendable. A large number of Red Army soldiers who retreated without orders during

4000-589: The acronym Bat' d'Af' , were French infantry and construction units, serving in Northern Africa , made up of men with prison records who still had to do their military service, or soldiers with serious disciplinary records. Created by King Louis Philippe I on 13 June 1832, shortly after the French Foreign Legion , the Bat' d'Af' were part of the Army of Africa and were stationed in Tataouine , Tunisia , in one of

4100-771: The battle of France . A single company of the BILA was re-established in April 1944, becoming a full battalion in September 1948. It was based at Tataouine, the original garrison of the Bat' d'Af'. This formation provided a marching battalion, renamed the Bataillon d'Infanterie légère d'Outre-Mer (BILOM) which participated in the First Indochina War by manning a number of posts in the Bencat sector. Upon returning to Tunisia in November 1952 it

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4200-456: The fourragères of the following medals : After 1952 (see above) the Regimental flag of the Bat' d'Af' were embroidered those battle honours : The difficult task of obtaining sufficient non-commissioned officers for the Bat' d'Af' was resolved by creating two categories of sous-officiers . The cadres blancs ("white cadres"), like the officers, were professional soldiers who served

4300-469: The rear for military operations other than war or menial labour relating to the war effort , guarded and overseen by regular military units, military police , or barrier troops to ensure they do not attempt to escape , retreat , or mutiny . However, this is not always the case: some penal units are treated the same as regular units and, depending on military organization, a dedicated penal unit may not exist at all, with convicts instead being placed in

4400-453: 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 20 feet in diameter with 24 steps around a six-foot cylinder. Prisoners had to work six or more hours a day, climbing the equivalent of 5,000 to 14,000 vertical feet. While the purpose was mainly punitive,

4500-401: 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. Semi-punitive labour also included oakum -picking: teasing apart old tarry rope to make caulking material for sailing vessels. Imprisonment with hard labour

4600-553: The "Not one step back!" (Ни шагу назад!, Ni shagu nazad! ) Order—introduced severe punishments, including summary execution , for unauthorized retreats. During the Chinese Civil War , between 1945 and 1949, the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) was known to have fielded penal battalions. Made up of deserters and those accused of cowardice, these penal battalions were given dangerous tasks such as scouting ahead of

4700-596: The 1820s to increase the prison's profits and support the prison financially. As historian Robin Bernstein demonstrates, this system of for-profit prison labor expanded to other state prisons throughout the United States within the next fifteen years, well before the convict-leasing system of the post-Civil War era. 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

4800-686: The 1914-1918 war, the 2nd BILA remained stationed in North Africa, but contributed to the formation of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd BMILA, which were called up to fight in Belgium and in metropolitan France. It was disbanded in 1927, after the end of the Rif war. In 1939, it was reconstituted in embryonic form (a single company) in Corsica. Formed in 1833 ; disbanded in 1972 Formed in 1888 ; disbanded in 1927 Formed in 1888 ; disbanded in 1925 Those units received

4900-511: The 1950s. 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. In the Indian Penal Code prior to 1949, Many sections prescribed penal servitude for life as

5000-501: The 20th century. Yet, as historian Robin Bernstein demonstrates, the convict leasing system and the use of prison labor for profit began well before the Civil War in Auburn, New York . During this early period of convict leasing, prisoners at Auburn Prison were not paid for their labor. Bernstein explains the reasoning behind this refusal to pay wages to prison laborers in her analysis of one of

5100-657: The Congo-Ocean railway (140 km or 87 miles) 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

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5200-461: 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. At the height of the purges in the 1930s political prisoners made up 12% of the camp population; at

5300-646: The High Court, to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term exceeding three years. See section 221 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 and section 307(4) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 . 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

5400-505: The Netherlands, but a light variant consisting of community service (Dutch: taakstraf ) is one of the primary punishments which can be imposed on a convicted offender. The maximum punishment is 240 hours, according to article 22c, part 2 of Wetboek van Strafrecht . The labour must be done in their free time. Reclassering Nederland keeps track of those who were sentenced to community services. The Criminal Justice Act 1954 abolished

5500-535: 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

5600-493: The Union, into their ranks in penal units from 1862 to around 1866. During World War II, prisoners were permitted to provide to the war effort, and in 1942, it was reported that several prisoners had offered to enlist in the military to fight in the war, with some even receiving training ahead of enlistment, though no penal units are known to have been formed in the U.S. military. Well into the 20th century, U.S. courts offered defendants

5700-418: The West . Xinjiang internment camps represent a source of penal labour in China according to Adrien Zenz . Since 2002, some prisoners have been eligible to receive payment for their labour. Prison inmates can work 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

5800-448: The beginning of for-profit prisons in the United States. One of the first for-profit prisons was Auburn Prison , located in Auburn, New York, along the Owasco River . The prison was constructed in 1816 and prison labor was used to produce common goods like combs, shoes, animal harnesses, carpets, buckets, and barrels. Goods were originally produced and made for use inside the prison only, but expanded to produce products for outside sale in

5900-441: The blue and red kepi , yellow collar numbers, and for full dress, red epaulettes with green woollen fringes. As light infantry the Bat' d'Af' wore silver buttons and rank braiding rather than the bronze or gold of the line regiments. A bugle horn appeared on buttons and other insignia. Prior to 1914, the most commonly worn uniform of these units was white fatigue dress with white covered kepi and blue waist sash. In colder weather

6000-420: The body, as was customary in the French criminal underworld of the early 20th century ( see examples here ). Their bad reputation and doubts about their efficiency as a mean of rehabilitation led to the dissolution of most Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa during the interwar period . Following the disbandment of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, serving personnel were transferred to the 3rd Battalion in 1927. In

6100-424: The choice between enlistment and prison, a practice that continued through both world wars and the Korean War until at least the Vietnam War ; reportedly, this was how R. Lee Ermey , a U.S. Marine Corps staff sergeant and drill instructor known for his acting role in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket , enlisted as a 17-year-old delinquent in 1961. However, convicts were not placed in separate penal units, and

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6200-408: The considerations behind the creation and expansion of the French army's disciplinary battalions was the need to resolve a seeming contradiction: men whose crimes in civilian life had resulted in the loss of civil rights gained an undeserved privilege in being exempted from military service . As their enlistment in regular units could have spread indiscipline among young serving soldiers, the solution

6300-733: The context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included involuntary servitude , penal servitude , and imprisonment with hard labour . The term may refer to several related scenarios: labour as a form of punishment, the prison system used as a means to secure labour, and labour as providing occupation for convicts. These scenarios can be applied to those imprisoned for political, religious, war, or other reasons as well as to criminal convicts. Large-scale implementations of penal labour include labour camps , prison farms , penal colonies , penal military units , penal transportation , or aboard prison ships . Punitive labour , also known as convict labour, prison labour, or hard labour ,

6400-414: The corps and was subsequently commemorated in all battalions by memorial ceremonies on 6 February each year. In 1870 the BILA provided a temporary régiment de marche to serve in France during the Franco-Prussian War . On two occasions detached companies suffered heavy casualties during this campaign. A platoon of the Bat' d'Af' served at the Battle of Taghit in 1903, when the French fort of Taghit

6500-490: The course of France's general mobilisation in 1939, 12 additional Battalions of Light Infantry (BIL) were created but the historic title of Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa (BILA) was retained only by those units continuing to serve in French North Africa. During 1939-40 both the BIL and the BILA served primarily as construction units, working on fortifications, railways and roads in France, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. All were disbanded between July and October 1940 following

6600-632: The distinction between imprisonment with and without hard labour and replaced 'reformative detention' with 'corrective training', which was later abolished on 30 June 2002. 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). According to human rights organisations, the prisoners face forced hard labour in all North Korean prison camps. The conditions are harsh and life-threatening and prisoners are subject to torture and inhumane treatment. Another historically significant example of forced labour

6700-438: The earliest examples of penal military units was established, were written in the Chinese annals Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Han . During the Han–Dayuan War , unhappy with the failure of General Li Guangli in an earlier expedition in 104 BC, Emperor Wu of Han promised amnesty and rewards to criminals, prisoners and bandits (赦囚徒捍寇盜) and dispatched a 60,000-strong army consisting of "bad boys" (惡少年) to attack

6800-403: The first time during the conquest of Algeria. They participated in operations at Bougie in 1835 and took part in the siege of Constantine the following year. Between 3 and 6 February 1840 at the Battle of Mazagran in Algeria, a detachment of 123 chasseurs of the 1st BILA, under Captain Lelievre, held off repeated assaults by several thousand Arabs. This action won the first battle honour for

6900-442: The front line, with soldiers being coached to regain their lost honor by fighting. Certain penal military units, such as the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS , gained a reputation as being brutal towards civilian populations and prisoners of war, and were employed as anti-partisan troops due to the fear they inspired. Other units, most notably the 999th Light Afrika Division , suffered from poor morale and saw soldiers desert

7000-450: The government organisation that was in charge of them. 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. Most inmates in

7100-434: 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. Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa The Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa ( French : Bataillons d'Infanterie Légère d'Afrique or BILA ), better known under

7200-446: The initial German invasion were reorganized into rudimentary penal units, the precursors to dedicated Shtrafbat . The Shtrafbat were greatly increased in number by Joseph Stalin in July 1942 via Order No. 227 (Директива Ставки ВГК №227). Order No. 227 was a desperate effort to re-instill discipline after the panicked routs of the first year of combat with Germany. The order—popularized as

7300-556: The later years of the Napoleonic Wars . The disbandment of conscripted armies and end of large scale warfare following the Napoleonic era led to the decline of the penal battalion system in continental Europe. However, the system continued in overseas colonies, again with the French as the primary employers of penal battalions. The Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa ( Bats d'Af ) was formed by order of Louis Philippe I in 1832 for

7400-575: The main forces to check for ambushes, crossing rivers and torrents to see whether they were fordable, and traversing unmapped minefields. In the United States , the United States Armed Forces historically fielded penal units and permitted the enlistment of prisoners. During the American Civil War , the Union permitted Galvanized Yankees , Confederate prisoners of war who swore allegiance to

7500-400: The mills could have been used to grind grain, pump water, or operate a ventilation system. 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

7600-504: The modern day, with most militaries relying instead on volunteers and conscripts for military personnel , and convicts and criminals—typically only accepted into military service out of necessity—usually being placed into regular units. The hiring of prisoners for combat and military service, often in exchange for freedom, is a common trope in modern fiction and popular culture , with narratives centering around penal units appearing in films, television, novels, and video games. One of

7700-697: The most arid and hostile regions of the French colonial empire . The original Ordonnance royale (Royal order) creating this corps provided for 2 battalions, each of 8 companies. A third battalion was created in September 1833. According to the order the rank and file of these units were to be drawn from: (i) serving soldiers who had been sentenced to existing disciplinary companies and who had not completed their period of army service upon release; and (ii) civilian convicts who upon completing terms of imprisonment had still to meet their obligations for compulsory military service. The newly raised Bat' d'Af' saw active service for

7800-466: The practice was entirely up to the judge with the military having the option to reject the defendant. Presently, all branches of the U.S. military forbid the acceptance of convicts, both after sentencing and as an alternative to imprisonment (except the U.S. Navy , which does not have specific prohibitions but still strongly discourages it as a protocol), and do not maintain any penal formations, though ex-convicts with felony priors are still permitted with

7900-463: The prisoners' wages are far below market rate. During the early Meiji era , in Hokkaido many prisoners were forced to engage in road construction ( Shūjin dōro ( 囚人道路 ) ), mining , and railroad construction , which were severe. It was thought to be a form of unfree labour . It was replaced by indentured servitude ( Takobeya-rōdō ( タコ部屋労働 ) ). (Hard) penal labour does not exist in

8000-588: The purpose of expanding the French colonial empire . The Battalions fought in the French conquest of Algeria and during the Crimean War . The French also employed the compagnies d'exclus ("companies of the excluded"), military units which were stationed at Aîn-Sefra in Southern Algeria. In contrast to the Bats d'Af , the compagnies d'exclus were outright penal units consisting of convicts condemned to five years or more of hard labor and judged unworthy to carry weapons. The various Italian unification conflicts saw

8100-687: The recruitment of prisoners was a military necessity, and prisoners were reportedly sought out for their violent nature and to ease the cost of the prison system in wartime. The period of military rearmament preceding World War II caused renewed interest in the concept of penal military units. In May 1935 the German Wehrmacht instituted a new policy under German conscription law that stated soldiers who were deemed disruptive to military discipline but were otherwise "worthy of service" would be sent to military penal units. Criminals were also conscripted into penal units in exchange for lighter sentences or as

8200-460: The regular army and were often placed in compromising situations, such as being used in forlorn hope assaults. The French Empire in particular was notable for employing penal military units during the wars of the coalition , especially during the later years of the conflicts as manpower became limited. The Régiment pénal de l'Île de Ré , formed in 1811 and composed almost entirely of criminals and other societal undesirables, would see action during

8300-627: The remaining units served in the southern districts of Algeria. A detachment of the 4th Btn. was posted to Indochina before 1914. On the eve of the First World War two battalions were on active service in Morocco. During 1914-18 3 bataillons de Marche (temporary "marching battalions" formed for particular purposes) served on the Western Front with distinction (see Battle Honours and Fourragères below). The permanent units remained in French North Africa, providing garrisons and mobile columns. One of

8400-655: The right to carry standards, although this was a universal privilege accorded to other French army regiments. Entitlement to this and other distinctions was persistently argued by the "Association of Former Officers of the Joyeux" chaired by General Alfred Maurice Cazaud. The march of the Bat d'Af is Les Bataillonnaires : 1er couplet: Refrain 2ème couplet: (Refrain) 3ème couplet: (Refrain) 1st verse: Chorus: 2nd verse: ( Repeat Chorus: ) 3rd verse: ( Repeat Chorus: ) (*) note that "on s'en fout" would be more accurately translated into "we don't give

8500-563: 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

8600-470: The siege of Stalingrad and in the forced march into captivity. 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. Probably the worst of the camp complexes were the three built north of the Arctic Circle at Kolyma , Norilsk and Vorkuta . Prisoners in Soviet labour camps were sometimes worked to death with

8700-404: 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. The Gulags constituted a large portion of the Soviet Union's overall economy. Over half of

8800-727: 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. Between 1930 and 1960, the Soviet regime created many labour camps in Siberia and Central Asia . There were at least 476 separate camp complexes, each one comprising hundreds, even thousands of individual camps. It

8900-466: Was "reduced to a silent insulated human working machine." New York State's Auburn Prison was not the only prison to adopt such practices. From 1817-1844, seventeen states across the United States North, South, and West, as well as Washington, D.C. and parts of Canada adopted this system. During Jim Crow former slaves were often arrested and worked in much the same way as before the war. Since

9000-410: 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

9100-691: Was besieged by 4,000 Moroccan tribesmen, who were eventually repelled. All three battalions in existence in 1907 were assigned to active service in Morocco during the French occupation of that country. By 1914 the corps had been expanded to five battalions with depots in Oran , Morocco and Tunisia. As discipline and living conditions in the Bat' d'Af' were harsh, Bataillonnaires , colloquially named Zéphyrs or Joyeux ("Joyous ones"), usually nicknamed their unit l'Enfer ("the Hell") or, ironically, Biribi (a game of chance of that period). However, they fought creditably in

9200-420: Was disbanded on 31 March 1972. Between 600,000 and 800,000 men served in the Bat' d'Af' from 1832 to 1970, mostly from the working class of Paris and Marseille . Throughout most of their history the Bat' d'Af' wore the uniform of the French line infantry, modified according to the overseas conditions under which they had to serve and with some regimental distinctions. The latter included yellow piping on

9300-631: Was first introduced into English law with the Criminal Law Act 1776 ( 16 Geo. 3 . c. 43), 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 . The Penal Servitude Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 99), substituted penal servitude for transportation to

9400-672: Was garrisoned at Miliana in Algeria. On 28 November 1870, during the Franco-Prussian war, the battle of Beaune-la-Rolande took place where two companies of the 2nd BILA, which made up the African Light Infantry Regiment, were engaged. From 1887 to 1896, the battalion was commanded by Antoine Léonor de Perier, father of general Pierre-Étienne de Perier . In operation in Morocco, with depots in Mcheyda and El Hadjeb in 19146. During

9500-524: Was merged with the depot detachments of the BILA. Now designated as the 3rd BILA, the unit was transferred to Algeria following Tunisian independence in November 1956. The battalion was reduced to one company in October 1962, which was stationed near the French nuclear testing facilities in the Sahara from 1963 to 1966. This last remaining component of the Bat' d'Af' was then transferred to French Somaliland where it

9600-471: Was not punishment but segregation in what were officially described as "redemptive combat units" ( corps d'epreuve ). In addition to petty criminals and military offenders, the rank and file also included a number of soldiers suspected of Communard sympathies during the 1870s and the ringleaders of several mutinies in metropolitan regiments in the early 1900s. Finally, there were also some volunteers who chose for reasons of promotion or other motives to serve in

9700-400: 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

9800-466: 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). Forced labour was widely used in the African colonies. One of the most emblematic projects, the construction of

9900-462: 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. 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

10000-448: Was to draft them into separate disciplinary battalions. The distinctive nature of these units meant that the average age of bataillonnaires was often older than that of the conscripts of metropolitan units called to do service at 20 years old. Where possible the Bats d'Af were garrisoned separately from regular French and colonial troops to prevent brawling. Although the Bats d'Af are commonly described as penal units, their purpose

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