Penal colony

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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 prison regime was always harsh, often including severe corporal punishment. The British Empire's use of parts of Australia provides the classic example.

In the Penal Colony system, prisoners were sent far away to prevent escape, or even 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.

History

The British used North America as a Penal Colony through the system of indentured servants, though it is unknown if criminals were considered indentured servants or some other type of labor. 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 Britishers had made various penal colonies. two of the most (in)famous ones are at Andaman islands and Hijli.

France sent criminals to tropical penal colonies. Devil's Island in French Guiana received forgers and other criminals. New Caledonia in Melanesia (South Sea) received dissidents like the Communards for a time.

Both Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union used Siberia as a penal colony for criminals and dissidents. Though geographically contiguous with heartland Russia, Siberia provided both remoteness and a harsh climate. The Gulag and its tsarist predecessor, the katorga system, provided slave-type labor to develop forestry, logging and mining industries, construction enterprises, as well as highways and railroads across Siberia.

Fiction

The concept of remote and inhospitable prison planets has been employed by science fiction writers. Some of the famous examples include Robert Sheckley's Omega, Salusa Secundus in Frank Herbert's Dune, and the penal colony in Alien³. In the Star Trek universe, Rura Penthe is a Klingon colony where prisoners mine dilithium. The Doctor Who serial Frontier in Space features a lunar penal colony in the 26th century; a lunar penal colony of the 2002nd century is also mentioned in the episode Bad Wolf.