Penal labour
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Penal labour or prison 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 the context. For
Male convicts sewing at the Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Romania, 1930s.
Female convicts chained together by their necks for work on a road. Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika c. 1890–1927.
Inmates sewing in a Brazilian prison
Prisoners at the treadmill in Pentonville Prison, London, 1895
Penal treadmill
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A penal treadmill was a treadwheel or treadmill with steps set into two cast iron wheels. These drove a shaft that could be used to mill corn, pump water, or connect to a large fan for resistance.
Penal labour
…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…
Treadmill at Brixton Prison in London designed by William Cubitt, c. 1817
Penal Treadmill, Jamaica, c. 1837
British penal treadwheel in Coldbath Fields Prison, 1864