Penal 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 a prison farm. The British Empire's use of parts of Australia, a 'virgin' continent, provides the classic example.

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.

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, 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.

Andaman Islands

"The point of enduring interest as regards the Andamans is the penal colony, the object of which is to turn the life-sentence and few long-sentence convicts, who alone are sent to the settlement, into honest, self-respecting men and women, by leading them along a continuous course of practice in self-help and self-restraint, and by offering them every inducement to take advantage of that practice. After ten years' graduated labour the convict is given a ticket-of-leave and becomes self-supporting. He can farm, keep cattle, and marry or send for his family, but he cannot leave the settlement or be idle. With approved conduct, however, he may be absolutely released after twenty to twenty-five years in the settlement; and throughout that time, though possessing no civil rights, a quasi-judicial procedure controls all punishments inflicted upon him, and he is as secure of obtaining justice as if free. There is an unlimited variety of work for the labouring convicts, and some of the establishments are on a large scale. Very few experts are employed in supervision; practically everything is directed by the officials, who themselves have first to learn each trade. Under the chief commissioner, who is the supreme head of the settlement, are a deputy and a staff of assistant superintendents and overseers, almost all Europeans, and sub-overseers, who are natives of India. All the petty supervising establishments are composed of convicts.

"The garrison consists of 140 British and 300 Indian troops, with a few local European volunteers. The police are organised as a military battalion 643 strong. The number of convicts has somewhat diminished of late years and in 1901 stood at 11,947. The total population of the settlement, consisting of convicts, their guards, the supervising, clerical and departmental staff, with the families of the latter, also a certain number of ex-convicts and trading settlers and their families, numbered 16,106. The labouring convicts are distributed among four jails and nineteen stations; the self-supporters in thirty-eight villages. The elementary education of the convicts' children is compulsory. There are four hospitals, each under a resident medical officer, under the general supervision of a senior officer of the Indian medical service, and medical aid is given free to the whole population. The net annual cost of the settlement to the government is about six pounds per convict. The harbour of Port Blair is well supplied with buoys and harbour lights, and is crossed by ferries at fixed intervals, while there are several launches for hauling local traffic. On Ross Island there is a lighthouse visible for 19 miles. A complete system of signaling by night and day on the Morse system is worked by the police. Local posts are frequent, but there is no telegraph and the mails are irregular."

The above accounts, written while Britain still controlled India, may leave the impression that these settlements were a model of progressive penal reform. Indian accounts, however, paint a different picture. From the time of its development in 1858 under the direction of James Pattison Walker, and in response to the mutiny and rebellion of the previous year, the settlement was first and foremost a repository for political prisoners. The Cellular Jail at Port Blair when completed in 1910 included 698 cells designed to better accommodate solitary confinement; each cell measured 4.5 by 2.7 metres with a single ventilation window 3 metres above the floor. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar had been one of the illustrious prisoners there. The Viper Chain Gang Jail on Viper Island was reserved for troublemakers, and was also the site of hangings. In the 20th century it became a convenient place to house prominent members of India's independence movement, and it was here that on December 30, 1943 during Japanese occupation, that Subhas Chandra Bose, whilst controversially serving with the Japanese first raised the flag of Indian independence.

At the close of the Second World War the British government announced its intention to abolish the penal settlement. The government proposed to employ former inmates in an initiative to develop the island's fisheries, timber, and agricultural resources. In exchange inmates would be granted return passage to the Indian mainland, or the right to settle on the islands. The penal colony was eventually closed on August 15, 1947 when India gained its independence. It has since served as a museum to the independence movement.

Hijli

The administrative building of Hijli Detention Camp (September 1951)

Hijli Detention Camp, located in Hijli, beside Kharagpur, (a part of former Hijli Kingdom), in the district of Midnapore West, West Bengal, India, was significant in the struggle against the British Raj in the early 20th century.

The large numbers of those who participated in the armed struggle or the non-cooperation movement could not be accommodated in ordinary jails. The British Government decided to establish a few detention camps; the first one was located in Buxa Fort followed by the creation of the Hijli Detention Camp in 1930. A significant moment in the struggle against British rule occurred at The Hijli Detention Camp on Sept. 16, 1931 when two unarmed detainees, Santosh Kumar Mitra and Tarakeswar Sengupta, were shot dead by the British Police and Subhas Chandra Bose came to Hijli to collect their bodies. National leaders, including Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, voiced strong protests against the British Raj over this incident.

The Hijli Detention Camp was closed in 1937 and was reopened again in 1940. In 1942 the camp was again closed and the detainees were transferred elsewhere.

In May 1950, the first Indian Institute of Technology was established here. In 1990, the former detention camp buildings were converted to house the Nehru Museum of Science and Technology.

France

France sent criminals to tropical penal colonies. Devil's Island in French Guiana, 1852 - 1939, received forgers and other criminals. New Caledonia in Melanesia (in the South Sea) received dissidents like the Communards, Kabyles rebels as well as convicted criminals.

Devil's Island

Devil's Island (French Île du Diable) is the smallest island of the three Îles du Salut located off the coast of French Guiana at 5°17′N 52°35′W. It has an area of 14 hectares (34.6 acres). It was a notorious French penal colony until 1946.

The rocky, palm-covered island is 40 meters (131 ft) high. The penitentiary was first opened by Emperor Napoleon III's government in 1852, became one of the most infamous prisons in history. In addition to the prison on the island, prison facilities were located on the mainland at Kourou. Over time, they became known collectively as "Devil's Island" in the English-speaking world, while they are known in France as the bagne de Cayenne, Cayenne being the main city of French Guiana.

Used by France from 1852 to 1946, the inmates were everything from "political" prisoners (for example, anarchist Clément Duval) to the most hardened of thieves and murderers. A great many of the more than 80,000 prisoners sent to the harsh conditions at disease-infested Devil's Island were never seen again. Other than by boat, the only way out was through a dense jungle; accordingly, very few convicts ever managed to escape.

The May 30, 1854 law provided that convicts would then be forced to stay in French Guiana following their release for a time equal to their forced labor time, or, for sentences exceeding 8 years, for the remainder of their life. They were to be provided with land to settle on. With time, a variety of penal regimes emerged, convicts being divided into categories according to the severity of their crimes and their imprisonment or forced residence regime. In 1885, a law accelerated the process, since repeat offenders for minor crimes could also be sent. A limited number of convicted women were also sent to French Guiana, with the intent that they should marry the freed male inmates; however, the results were poor and the government ceased the practice in 1907. [1]

The horrors of the penal settlement became notorious in 1895 with the publicity surrounding the plight of the Jewish French army captain Alfred Dreyfus who had been wrongfully convicted of treason and was sent there on January 5.

Several movies, songs, a stage play, as well as a number of books feature Devil's Island. The most famous was a 1970 best-selling book by an ex-Devil's Island convict named Henri Charrière published under the title Papillon. The book told of his numerous alleged escape attempts, and in 1973 it was made into a movie starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.

Before the bestseller Papillon, Rene Belbenoit's book, titled Dry Guillotine published in 1938, was instrumental in exposing the prison colony of Devil's Island. The novel "Plan de evasión" by Adolfo Bioy Casares contains many references to the island.

The French folk song Cayenne (named after the main city of French Guiana) tells the story of a pimp who shoots a well-to-do client who grossly disrespected a prostitute, and is then convicted and transferred to the infamous penitentiary.

Devil's Island is the name of a song on Megadeth's 1986 release Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? The song is about a man who is about to be executed on Devil's Island, but is spared at the last second by God. However, the prisoner is forced to stay at Devil's Island forever. In Megadeth's Rude Awakening DVD, frontman Dave Mustaine says the following: "this is from a movie called 'Papillon'. See if you recognize this one", promptly playing "Devil's Island".

In 1938 the French government stopped sending prisoners to Devil's Island, and in 1952 the prison closed permanently. Most of the prisoners returned to European France, although some chose to remain in French Guiana.

Russia

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 penal labor to develop forestry, logging and mining industries, construction enterprises, as well as highways and railroads across Siberia.

Katorga

Katorga (ка́торга, from Greek: katergon,κάτεργον galley) was a system of penal servitude of the prison farm type in Imperial Russia. Prisoners were sent to remote camps in vast uninhabited areas of Siberia -where voluntary laborers were never available in satisfactory numbers- and forced to perform hard labor. Katorga began in the 17th century, and was taken over by the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution of 1917, eventually transforming into the Gulag labor camps.

History

Unlike concentration camps, "katorga" was within the normal judicial system of (Imperial) Russia, but both share the same main features: confinement, simplified facilities (as opposed to prisons), and forced labor, usually on hard, unskilled or semi-skilled work.

Katorgas were established in the 17th century in underpopulated areas of Siberia and the Russian Far East that had few towns or food sources. Nonetheless, a few prisoners successfully escaped back to populated areas. Since these times, Siberia gained its fearful connotation of punishment, which was further enhanced by the Soviet Gulag system that developed from the Katorga camps.

After the change in Russian penal law in 1847, exile and katorga became common penalties to the participants of national uprisings within the Russian Empire. This led to increasing number of Poles being sent to Siberia for katorga; they were known as Sybiraks. Some of them remained there, forming a Polish minority in Sibera.

The most common occupations in katorga camps were mining and timber works. A notable example was the construction of Amur Cart Road (Амурская колесная дорога), praised as a success in organisation of penal labor.

Anton Chekhov, the famous Russian writer and playwright, in 1891 visited the katorga settlements in the Sakhalin island in the Russian Far East and wrote about the conditions there in his book Sakhalin Island. He criticized the shortsightedness and incompetence of the officials in charge that has led to poor living standards, waste of government funds, and poor productivity. Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his book Gulag Archipelago about the Soviet era labor camps quoted Chekhov extensively to illustrate the enormous deterioration of living conditions of the inmates in the Soviet era compared with those of the katorga inmates of Chekhov's time.

Peter Kropotkin, while being aide de camp to the governor of Transbaikalia, was appointed to inspect the state of the prison system in the area, and later described the findings in his book, In Russian and French Prisons.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917 the Russian penal system was taken over by the Bolsheviks, eventually transforming into the Gulag labor camps.

Comparisons

Penal labour has been quite common throughout history, in a number of countries. Parallels can be drawn between the katorga and the American chain gang, or the convict settlements in Australia, which played a part in building the country. As well as the punishment aspect, penal labour also partially attempts to address the financial cost of keeping prisoners.

Notable katorgas

• Nerchinsk katorga (Нерчинская каторга)
  • Akatuy katorga (Акатуйская каторга)
  • Algacha katorga (Алгачинская каторга)
  • Kara katorga (Карийская каторга)
  • Maltsev katorga (Мальцувская каторга)
  • Zerentuy katorga (Зерентуйская каторга)
• Sakhalin katorga (Сахалинская каторга)

Famous katorga captives

Russian

• Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, from 1849 until 1854, for revolutionary activity against Tsar Nicholas I. Dostoyevsky abandoned his leftist attitudes during this period, and became deeply conservative and extremely religious.
• Cheka founder Felix Dzerzhinsky, imprisoned (and escaped) twice, in 1897 and 1900, for revolutionary activity.
• Peter Kropotkin, prominent Russian scientist and anarchist
• Lenin, the most famous Russian revolutionary. Reportedly escaped twice.
• David Riazanov (1891-1895), a narodnik at the time and latter founder of the Marx-Engels Institute

Polish

• Aleksander Czekanowski
• Jan Czerski
• Benedykt Dybowski
• Bronisław Piłsudski
• Piotr Wysocki

Ecuador

In Ecuador, the Island of San Cristobál (in the Galapagos archipelago) was used as a penal colony 1869 - 1904.

Fiction

• In the Penal Colony is a short story by Franz Kafka.
• More than one of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, including Desolation Island and The Nutmeg of Consolation include scenes set in and around New South Wales.
• "penal colony" is also the English title of two movies: No Escape (1994) and Colonia penal, La (1970)
• For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke is a 19th Century novel dealing with the main characters deportation to the Australian penal colony in 1830. There are several movie versions, such as the 1983 TV movie starring Colin Friels
• "Morgan's Run" by Colleen McCullough is a 20th Century novel dealing with the main characters deportation to the Australian penal colony.
• "Papillon" is the title of Henri Charriere's 20th Century autobiographical novel concerning a Frenchman interned on a penal colony in French Guiana, and the 1973 movie directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

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

• Kessel, a prison planet which specialized in spice mining in the Star Wars universe.
• Robert Sheckley's Omega,
• Salusa Secundus in Frank Herbert's Dune,
• The planet Fiorina 'Fury' 161 in Alien³,
• The CoDominium series of Jerry Pournelle showed several planets, such as Tanith, Haven and Sparta, that were used as dumping grounds for criminals and dissidents,
• Rura Penthe, a Klingon colony where prisoners mine dilithium in the Star Trek universe,
• 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,
• In several episodes the TV series Stargate SG-1, whole planets are used as penal colonies, generally by the goa'uld, e.g. Hadante in episode 25 (season 2)
• Crematoria is the sun scorched prison planet in The Chronicles of Riddick,
• The Moon in Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
• Shayol from Cordwainer Smith's future history; criminals are sent there to have their internal organs constantly harvested and regrown.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• P.Kropotkin, In Russian and French Prisons, London: Ward and Downey; 1887.

Further reading

• Belbenoit, René. 1940. Hell on Trial. Translated from the Original French Manuscript by Preston Rambo. E. P Dutton & Co. Reprint by Blue Ribbon Books, New York, 1941.
• Belbenoit, René. 1938. Dry guillotine: Fifteen years among the living dead. Reprint: Berkley (1975). ISBN 0-425-02950-6. Reprint: Bantam Books, 1971.
• Charrière, Henri. Papillon. Reprints: Hart-Davis Macgibbon Ltd. 1970. ISBN 0-246-63987-3 (hbk); Perennial, 2001. ISBN 0-06-093479-4 (sbk).

External links

• P.Kropotkin: In Russian and French Prisons

• Nehru Museum of Science & Technology

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