A penal military unit, also known as a penal formation, disciplinary unit, or just penal unit, is a military formation consisting of convicts mobilized for military service. Such formations may consist of military prisoners convicted under military law, civilian prisoners convicted in civilian courts, prisoners of war who have chosen to side with their captors, or a combination of these groups.
The Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa, a French Army penal military unit, depicted in battle during the French conquest of Algeria in 1833
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 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.
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.
Prisoners at the treadmill in Pentonville Prison, London, 1895
Convict labourers in Australia in the early 20th century
