Penal colony

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(Redirected from Prison colony)

A Penal Colony is a colony used to detain prisoners and generally use them for penal labor in an economically underdeveloped part of the state's (usually colonial) territories, and on a far larger scale than the prison farm. The British Empire's use of parts of Australia, a 'virgin' continent, provides the classic example.

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Generalities

The prison regime was always harsh, often including severe physical punishment, so even if not sentenced for the rest of their natural lives, many died from hunger, disease, medical neglect and excessive efforts, or during an escape attempt.

In the Penal Colony system, prisoners were deported far away to prevent escape and to discourage returning after their sentence expired. Penal Colonies were often located in frontier lands, especially the more inhospitable parts, where their unpaid labour could benefit the metropoles before immigration labor became available, or even afterwards where they are much cheaper; in fact sometimes people (especially the poor, following a similar social logic as could see them domestically 'employed' in a poorhouse) were sentenced for trivial or dubious offenses to generate cheap labor.

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British Empire

The British used North America as a Penal Colony through the system of indentured servants. Most notably, the Province of Georgia was originally designed as a penal colony. Convicts would be transported by private sector merchants and auctioned off to plantation owners upon arrival in the colonies. It is estimated that some 50,000 British convicts were banished to colonial America, representing perhaps one-quarter of all British emigrants during the eighteenth century.

When that avenue closed in the 1780s after the American Revolution, Britain began using parts of modern day Australia as Penal Colonies. Some of these early colonies were Norfolk Island (which became the flogging hell meant to deter even the most hardened criminals- see cat o' nine tails), Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales. Advocates of Irish Home Rule or of Trade Unionism (the Tolpuddle Martyrs) often received sentences of transportation (the harsh regime started during the long shipping) to these Australian colonies.

In colonial India, the British had made various penal colonies. Two of the most infamous ones are on the Andaman islands and at Hijli.

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Elsewhere

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Fiction

The concept of remote and inhospitable prison planets has been employed by science fiction writers. Some famous examples include:

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Sources and references

de:Strafkolonie fr:Bagne he:מושבת עונשין nl:Strafkolonie pl:Kolonia karna

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