67-446: Stevia ( / ˈ s t iː v i ə , ˈ s t ɛ v i ə / ) is a sweet sugar substitute that is about 50 to 300 times sweeter than sugar . It is extracted from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana , a plant native to areas of Paraguay and Brazil . The active compounds in stevia are steviol glycosides (mainly stevioside and rebaudioside ). Stevia is heat-stable, pH -stable, and not fermentable . Humans cannot metabolize
134-463: A crank by hand which in turn forced four large cups or ladles through sand inside a drum, doing nothing useful. Male prisoners had to turn the handle 6,000–14,400 times over the period of six hours a day (1.5–3.6 seconds per turn), as registered on a dial. The warder could make the task harder by tightening an adjusting screw. The British penal colonies in Australia between 1788 and 1868 provide
201-491: A distant British colony, except in cases where a person could be sentenced to transportation for life or for a term not less than fourteen years. Section 2 of the Penal Servitude Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c. 3) abolished the sentence of transportation in all cases and provided that in all cases a person who would otherwise have been liable to transportation would be liable to penal servitude instead. Section 1 of
268-771: A highly purified Stevia rebaudiana -extract product. In 2015, the FDA still regarded stevia as "not an approved food additive", and stated that it "has not been affirmed as GRAS in the United States due to inadequate toxicological information". In June 2016, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued an order of detention for stevia products made in China based on information that the products were made using prison labor . Certain high-purity stevia glycoside extracts have been generally recognized as safe (GRAS) and may be lawfully marketed and added to food products. Use of stevia as
335-627: A major historical example of convict labour, as described above: during that period, Australia received thousands of transported convict labourers, many of whom had received harsh sentences for minor misdemeanours in Britain or Ireland . As late as 1885, 75% of all prison inmates were involved in some sort of productive endeavour, mostly in private contract and leasing systems. By 1935, the portion of prisoners working had fallen to 44%, and almost 90% of those worked in state-run programmes rather than for private contractors. According to section 45(1) of
402-472: 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. Large-scale implementations of penal labour include labour camps , prison farms , penal colonies , penal military units , penal transportation , or aboard prison ships . Punitive labour , also known as convict labour, prison labour, or hard labour ,
469-573: A mix of extreme production quotas , brutality , hunger and the harsh elements. In all, more than 18 million people passed through the Gulag , with further millions being deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union. The fatality rate was as high as 80% during the first months in many camps. Immediately after the start of the German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II ,
536-425: A prison workshop. In such cases, the pursuit of income from their productive labour may even overtake the preoccupation with punishment or reeducation as such of the prisoners, who are then at risk of being exploited as slave-like cheap labour (profit may be minor after 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
603-547: A private company, in the framework of a prison/company agreement for leasing inmate labour. Work ceased being compulsory for sentenced inmates in France in 1987. From the French Revolution of 1789 , the prison system has been governed by a new penal code. Some prisons became quasi-factories, in the nineteenth century, many discussions focused on the issue of competition between free labour and prison labour. Prison work
670-664: A professor of botany at the University of Valencia . In 1899, Swiss botanist Moisés Santiago Bertoni , while conducting research in eastern Paraguay, first described the plant and the sweet taste in detail. Only limited research was conducted on the topic until, in 1931, two French chemists isolated the glycosides that give stevia its sweet taste. During the 1990s, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received two petitions requesting that stevia be classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS), but
737-634: A punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction". Unconvicted detainees awaiting trial cannot be forced to participate in forced rehabilitative labour programs in prison as it violates the Thirteenth Amendment. The " convict lease " system became popular throughout the South following the American Civil War and continued into
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#1732782569189804-517: A sentence could have been passed in that case immediately before the commencement of that Act. Imprisonment with hard labour was abolished by section 1(2) of that Act. Penal servitude was abolished for Northern Ireland by section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1953 . Every enactment which operated to empower a court to pass a sentence of penal servitude in any case now operates so as to empower that court to pass
871-551: A sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding the maximum term of penal servitude for which a sentence could have been passed in that case immediately before the commencement of that Act. Imprisonment with hard labour was abolished by section 1(2) of that Act. Penal servitude was abolished in Scotland by section 16(1) of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1949 on 12 June 1950, and imprisonment with hard labour
938-434: A sentence of penal servitude, the maximum term of imprisonment may not exceed five years or any greater term authorised by the enactment. Imprisonment with hard labour was abolished by section 11(3) of that Act. Most Japanese prisoners are required to engage in prison labour, often in manufacturing parts which are then sold cheaply to private Japanese companies. This practice has raised charges of unfair competition since
1005-681: A standard feature. Although it was prescribed for severe crimes (e.g. rape, attempted murder, wounding with intent, by the Offences against the Person Act 1861 ) it was also widely applied in cases of minor crime, such as petty theft and vagrancy , as well as victimless behaviour deemed harmful to the fabric of society. Notable recipients of hard labour under British law include the prolific writer Oscar Wilde (after his conviction for gross indecency ), imprisoned in Reading Gaol . Labour
1072-476: A sweetener began in Japan, with the aqueous extract of the leaves yielding purified steviosides developed as sweeteners. Japanese firm Morita Kagaku Kogyo claims they were the first, in 1971, to commercialize stevia sweetener production. In the mid-1980s, stevia was commonly used in U.S. natural foods and health food industries, as a noncaloric natural sweetener for teas and weight-loss blends. The makers of
1139-528: A sweetener for decades. The plant Stevia rebaudiana has been used for centuries by the Guaraní peoples of South America, who called it ka'a he'ê ("sweet herb"). The leaves have been used traditionally for hundreds of years in both Paraguay and Brazil to sweeten local teas, and as a "sweet treat". The genus was named for the Spanish botanist and physician Pedro Jaime Esteve ( Petrus James Stevus , 1500–1556)
1206-571: A sweetener. The legally allowed uses and maximum dosage of the extracts and derived products vary widely from country to country. Sugar substitute Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 227161659 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:29:29 GMT Prison labor Penal labour
1273-482: A term not exceeding the maximum term of penal servitude for which a sentence could have been passed in that case immediately before the commencement of the Criminal Law Act 1997. In the case of any enactment in force on 5 August 1891 (the date on which section 1 of the Penal Servitude Act 1891 came into force) whereby a court had, immediately before the commencement of the Criminal Law Act 1997, power to pass
1340-604: A viable punishment. This was removed by Act No. XVII of 1949, known as the Criminal Law (Removal of Racial Discriminations) Act, 1949 Penal servitude was abolished in Ireland by section 11(1) of the Criminal Law Act, 1997 . Every enactment conferring a power on a court to pass a sentence of penal servitude in any case must be treated as an enactment empowering that court to pass a sentence of imprisonment for
1407-408: Is a form of forced labour used in both the past and the present as an additional form of punishment beyond imprisonment alone. Punitive labour encompasses two types: productive labour, such as industrial work; and intrinsically pointless tasks used as primitive occupational therapy , punishment, or physical torment. Sometimes authorities turn prison labour into an industry, as on a prison farm or in
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#17327825691891474-421: 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
1541-567: Is estimated that there may have been 5–7 million people in these camps at any one time. In later years the camps also held victims of Joseph Stalin's purges as well as World War II prisoners . It is possible that approximately 10% of prisoners died each year. Out of the 91,000 German soldiers captured after the Battle of Stalingrad , only 6,000 survived the Gulag and returned home. Many of these prisoners, however, had died of illness contracted during
1608-529: The Auburn Prison System 's main architects Elam Lynds, stating: ...Lynds aimed for profit. To him, a prisoner was like a slave, a machine, or a river: a resource to be exploited. Therefore the extraction of prisoners' labor, like that of slaves, should be limited by only the capacity of their human bodies. He believed that incarcerated men had no inherent right to benefit from their labor -vocationally, morally, or otherwise. Lynds's ideal prisoner
1675-848: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were arrested and re-educated in the spirit of anti-communism at the Northwestern Youth Labor Camp . After the CCP took power in 1949 and established the People's Republic of China , laojiao ( Re-education through labour ) and laogai ( Reform through labour ) was (and still is in some cases) used as a way to punish political prisoners . They were intended not only for criminals, but also for those deemed to be counter-revolutionary (political and/or religious prisoners). Often these prisoners are used to produce products for export to
1742-508: The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to produce goods and services. FPI is restricted to selling its products and services, which include clothing, furniture, electrical components and vehicle parts, to federal government agencies and has no access to the commercial market so as not to compete against private employment. State prison systems also use penal labour and have their own penal labour divisions. This has changed over time since
1809-560: The NKVD massacred about 100,000 prisoners who awaited deportation either to NKVD prisons in Moscow or to the Gulag. Inmates in Taiwan are required to work during their stay in prison but receive a wage for their labour. Federal Prison Industries (FPI; doing business as UNICOR since 1977) is a wholly owned United States government corporation created in 1934 that uses penal labour from
1876-518: The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 , prisoners are excluded from the national minimum wage. Penal servitude was abolished for England and Wales by section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1948 . Every enactment conferring power on a court to pass a sentence of penal servitude in any case must be construed as conferring power to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding the maximum term of penal servitude for which
1943-465: The United States , certain high-purity stevia glycoside extracts have been generally recognized as safe (GRAS) and may be lawfully marketed and added to food products, but stevia leaf and crude extracts do not have GRAS or Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for use in food. The European Union approved Stevia rebaudiana additives in 2011. In Japan , stevia has been widely used as
2010-402: The control group , the lowered fertility continuing after withdrawal of the drug for up to two months. The WHO's Joint Experts Committee on Food Additives has approved, based on long-term studies, an acceptable daily intake of steviol glycoside of up to 4 mg/kg of body mass. In 2010, The European Food Safety Authority established an acceptable daily intake of 4 mg/kg of steviol, in
2077-472: The glycosides in stevia, and it therefore has zero calories . Its taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar, and at high concentrations some of its extracts may have an aftertaste described as licorice -like or bitter . Stevia is used in sugar and calorie-reduced food and beverage products as an alternative for variants with sugar. The legal status of stevia as a food additive or dietary supplement varies from country to country. In
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2144-538: The proteins produced by the stevia plant, showing the crystalline structures that produce both the sensation of sweetness and bitter aftertaste in the sweetener, was reported in 2019. A 2010 review found that the use of Stevia rebaudiana sweeteners as replacements for sugar might benefit children, people with diabetes , and those wishing to lower their intake of calories. Although both steviol and rebaudioside A have been found to be mutagenic in laboratory in vitro testing, these effects have not been demonstrated for
2211-458: The treadmill , shot drill, and the crank machine . Treadmills for punishment were used for decades in British prisons beginning in 1818; they often took the form of large paddle wheels some 20 feet in diameter with 24 steps around a six-foot cylinder. Prisoners had to work six or more hours a day, climbing the equivalent of 5,000 to 14,000 vertical feet. While the purpose was mainly punitive,
2278-401: 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 punishments included turning the crank machine or carrying cannonballs. Semi-punitive labour also included oakum -picking: teasing apart old tarry rope to make caulking material for sailing vessels. Imprisonment with hard labour
2345-608: The 1820s to increase the prison's profits and support the prison financially. As historian Robin Bernstein demonstrates, this system of for-profit prison labor expanded to other state prisons throughout the United States within the next fifteen years, well before the convict-leasing system of the post-Civil War era. The 13th Amendment of the US Constitution , enacted in 1865, explicitly allows penal labour as it states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as
2412-523: The 1950s. Only convicts sentenced to "rigorous imprisonment" have to undertake work during their prison term. A 2011 Hindustan Times article reported that 99% of convicts that receive such sentences rarely undertake work because most prisons in India do not have sufficient demand for prison labour. In the Indian Penal Code prior to 1949, Many sections prescribed penal servitude for life as
2479-510: The 20th century. Yet, as historian Robin Bernstein demonstrates, the convict leasing system and the use of prison labor for profit began well before the Civil War in Auburn, New York . During this early period of convict leasing, prisoners at Auburn Prison were not paid for their labor. Bernstein explains the reasoning behind this refusal to pay wages to prison laborers in her analysis of one of
2546-687: The Congo-Ocean railway (140 km or 87 miles) cost the lives of 17,000 indigenous workers in 1929. In Cameroon, the 6,000 workers on the Douala-Yaoundé railway line had a mortality rate of 61.7% according to a report by the authorities. Forced labour was officially abolished in the colonies in 1946 under pressure from the Rassemblement démocratique africain and the French Communist Party . In fact, it lasted well into
2613-620: The European Union pending further research. In 2006 and 2016, research data compiled in the safety evaluations released by the World Health Organization found no adverse effects. In December 2008, the FDA gave a "no objection" approval for GRAS status to Truvia and PureVia , both of which use rebaudioside A derived from the Stevia rebaudiana plant. However, the FDA said that these products are not stevia, but
2680-563: The FDA "disagreed with [the] conclusions [detailed in the petitions]". Stevia remained banned for all uses until the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 , after which the FDA revised its stance and permitted stevia to be used as a dietary supplement , although still not as a food additive. In 1999, prompted by early studies, the European Commission banned stevia's use in food products within
2747-1021: The FDA permitted Truvia and PureVia, both the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo have introduced products that contain their new sweeteners. Rebaudioside A has the least bitterness of all the steviol glycosides in the Stevia rebaudiana plant. To produce steviol glycosides commercially, Stevia rebaudiana plants are dried and subjected to a hot water extraction process. This crude extract contains about 50% rebaudioside A. The various glycosides are separated and purified via crystallization techniques, typically using ethanol or methanol as solvent . The dried extract contains no less than 95% steviol glycosides. Stevia rebaudiana extracts and derivatives are produced industrially and marketed under different trade names. Glycosides are molecules that contain glucose residues bound to other non-sugar substances called aglycones (molecules with other sugars are polysaccharides ). Preliminary experiments deduce that
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2814-465: The Gulag were ordinary criminals: between 1934 and 1953 there were only two years, 1946 and 1947, when the number of counter-revolutionary prisoners exceeded that of ordinary criminals, partly because the Soviet state had amnestied 1 million ordinary criminals as part of the victory celebrations in 1945. At the height of the purges in the 1930s political prisoners made up 12% of the camp population; at
2881-733: The High Court, to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term exceeding three years. See section 221 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 and section 307(4) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 . In pre-Maoist China , a system of labour camps for political prisoners operated by the Kuomintang forces of Chiang Kai-shek existed during the Chinese Civil War from 1938 to 1949. Young activists and students accused of supporting Mao Zedong and
2948-511: The Netherlands, but a light variant consisting of community service (Dutch: taakstraf ) is one of the primary punishments which can be imposed on a convicted offender. The maximum punishment is 240 hours, according to article 22c, part 2 of Wetboek van Strafrecht . The labour must be done in their free time. Reclassering Nederland keeps track of those who were sentenced to community services. The Criminal Justice Act 1954 abolished
3015-550: The Penal Servitude Act 1891 makes provision for enactments which authorise a sentence of penal servitude but do not specify a maximum duration. It must now be read subject to section 1(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1948 . Sentences of penal servitude were served in convict prisons and were controlled by the Home Office and the Prison Commissioners . After sentencing, convicts would be classified according to
3082-538: The West . Xinjiang internment camps represent a source of penal labour in China according to Adrien Zenz . Since 2002, some prisoners have been eligible to receive payment for their labour. Prison inmates can work either for the prison (directly, by performing tasks linked to prison operation, or for the Régie Industrielle des Établissements Pénitentiaires, which produces and sells merchandise) or for
3149-648: The availability of Truvia, a consumer-brand Stevia sweetener containing erythritol and Rebiana, which the FDA permitted as a food additive in December 2008. Coca-Cola announced intentions to release stevia-sweetened beverages in late December 2008. From 2013 onwards, Coca-Cola Life , containing stevia as a sweetener, was launched in various countries around the world. Shortly afterward, PepsiCo and Pure Circle announced PureVia, their brand of Stevia -based sweetener, but withheld release of beverages sweetened with rebaudioside A until receipt of FDA confirmation. Since
3216-561: The beginning of for-profit prisons in the United States. One of the first for-profit prisons was Auburn Prison , located in Auburn, New York, along the Owasco River . The prison was constructed in 1816 and prison labor was used to produce common goods like combs, shoes, animal harnesses, carpets, buckets, and barrels. Goods were originally produced and made for use inside the prison only, but expanded to produce products for outside sale in
3283-685: The distinction between imprisonment with and without hard labour and replaced 'reformative detention' with 'corrective training', which was later abolished on 30 June 2002. North Korean prison camps can be differentiated into internment camps for political prisoners ( Kwan-li-so in Korean) and reeducation camps (Kyo-hwa-so in Korean). According to human rights organisations, the prisoners face forced hard labour in all North Korean prison camps. The conditions are harsh and life-threatening and prisoners are subject to torture and inhumane treatment. Another historically significant example of forced labour
3350-462: The doses and routes of administration to which humans are exposed. Two 2010 review studies found no health concerns with Stevia rebaudiana or its sweetening extracts. Used as an extract , stevia leaves have been used traditionally in Paraguay as a women's contraceptive , administered as a daily drink. The effect has been tested in rats, finding a 57–79 percent reduction in fertility compared with
3417-932: The form of steviol glycosides. Meanwhile, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center warns that "steviol at high dosages may have weak mutagenic activity," and a review "conducted for" the Center for Science in the Public Interest notes that there are no published carcinogenicity results for rebaudioside A (or stevioside). In August 2019, the US FDA placed an import alert on Stevia leaves and crude extracts – which do not have GRAS status – and on foods or dietary supplements containing them due to concerns about safety and potential for toxicity . The plant may be grown legally in most countries, although some countries restrict its use as
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#17327825691893484-408: The glycosides on the sweet receptor and TRPM5 explains the sweetness sensation. Some steviol glycosides (rebaudioside A) are perceived sweeter than others (stevioside). Steviol is processed by intestinal microflora and is also taken up into the bloodstream, further metabolised by the liver to steviol glucuronide and several other metabolites, and excreted in the urine. A three-dimensional map of
3551-450: The government organisation that was in charge of them. The Soviet Gulag camps were a continuation of the punitive labour system of Imperial Russia known as katorga , but on a larger scale. The kulaks were some of the first victims of the Soviet Union's forced labour system. Starting in 1930, nearly two million kulaks were taken to camps in unpopulated regions of the Soviet Union and forced to work in very harsh conditions. Most inmates in
3618-400: The mills could have been used to grind grain, pump water, or operate a ventilation system. Shot drill involved stooping without bending the knees, lifting a heavy cannonball slowly to chest height, taking three steps to the right, replacing it on the ground, stepping back three paces, and repeating, moving cannonballs from one pile to another. The crank machine was a device which turned
3685-468: The prisoners' wages are far below market rate. During the early Meiji era , in Hokkaido many prisoners were forced to engage in road construction ( Shūjin dōro ( 囚人道路 ) ), mining , and railroad construction , which were severe. It was thought to be a form of unfree labour . It was replaced by indentured servitude ( Takobeya-rōdō ( タコ部屋労働 ) ). (Hard) penal labour does not exist in
3752-573: The seriousness of the offence of which they were convicted and their criminal record. First time offenders would be classified in the Star class; persons not suitable for the Star class, but without serious convictions would be classified in the intermediate class. Habitual offenders would be classified in the Recidivist class. Care was taken to ensure that convicts in one class did not mix with convicts in another. Penal servitude included hard labour as
3819-477: The siege of Stalingrad and in the forced march into captivity. More than half of all deaths occurred in 1941–1944, mostly as a result of the deteriorating food and medicine supplies caused by wartime shortages. Probably the worst of the camp complexes were the three built north of the Arctic Circle at Kolyma , Norilsk and Vorkuta . Prisoners in Soviet labour camps were sometimes worked to death with
3886-457: The synthetic sweetener NutraSweet (at the time Monsanto) asked the FDA to require testing of stevia extracts. In 2007, the Coca-Cola Company announced plans to obtain approval for its Stevia -derived sweetener, Rebiana , for use as a food additive within the United States by 2009, as well as plans to market Rebiana-sweetened products in 12 countries that allow stevia's use as a food additive. In May 2008, Coca-Cola and Cargill announced
3953-404: The time of Joseph Stalin 's death just over one-quarter. In the 1930s, many ordinary criminals were guilty of crimes that would have been punished with a fine or community service in the 1920s. They were victims of harsher laws from the early 1930s, driven, in part, by the need for more prison camp labour. The Gulags constituted a large portion of the Soviet Union's overall economy. Over half of
4020-740: The tin produced in the Soviet Union was produced by the Gulags. In 1951, the Gulags extracted over four times as much gold as the rest of the economy. Gulag camps also produced all of the diamonds and platinum in the Soviet Union, and forced labourers in the Gulags constituted approximately one fifth of all construction labourers in the Soviet Union. Between 1930 and 1960, the Soviet regime created many labour camps in Siberia and Central Asia . There were at least 476 separate camp complexes, each one comprising hundreds, even thousands of individual camps. It
4087-447: The tongue's taste receptors react to the glycosides and transduce the sweet taste sensation and the lingering bitter aftertaste by direct activation of sweet and bitter receptors. According to basic research , steviol glycosides and steviol interact with a protein channel called TRPM5 , potentiating the signal from the sweet or bitter receptors, amplifying the taste of other sweet, bitter and umami tastants. The synergetic effect of
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#17327825691894154-475: Was "reduced to a silent insulated human working machine." New York State's Auburn Prison was not the only prison to adopt such practices. From 1817-1844, seventeen states across the United States North, South, and West, as well as Washington, D.C. and parts of Canada adopted this system. During Jim Crow former slaves were often arrested and worked in much the same way as before the war. Since
4221-410: Was abolished by section 16(2) of the act. Every enactment conferring power on a court to pass a sentence of penal servitude in any case must be construed as conferring power to pass a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding the maximum term of penal servitude for which a sentence could have been passed in that case immediately before 12 June 1950. But this does not empower any court, other than
4288-650: Was first introduced into English law with the Criminal Law Act 1776 ( 16 Geo. 3 . c. 43), also known as the " Hulks Act ", which authorised prisoners being put to work on improving the navigation of the River Thames in lieu of transportation to the North American colonies , which had become impossible due to the American War of Independence . The Penal Servitude Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 99), substituted penal servitude for transportation to
4355-400: Was sometimes useful. In Inveraray Jail from 1839 prisoners worked up to ten hours a day. Most male prisoners made herring nets or picked oakum (Inveraray was a busy herring port); those with skills were often employed where their skills could be used, such as shoemaking, tailoring or joinery. Female prisoners picked oakum, knitted stockings or sewed. Forms of labour for punishment included
4422-471: Was temporarily prohibited during the French Revolution of 1848 . Prison labour then specialised in the production of goods sold to government departments (and directly to prisons, for example guards' uniforms), or in small low-skilled manual labour (mainly subcontracting to small local industries). Forced labour was widely used in the African colonies. One of the most emblematic projects, the construction of
4489-522: Was that of political prisoners and other persecuted people in labour camps , especially in totalitarian regimes since the 20th century where millions of convicts were exploited and often killed by hard labour and bad living conditions. For much of the history of the Soviet Union and other Communist states , political opponents of these governments were often sentenced to forced labour camps. These forced labour camps are called Gulags, an acronym for
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