Penal transportation

• 1. Origins And Implementation

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  In the 5th century BC, Ancient Greece banished citizens from their polities as a form of punishment. This early practice laid the groundwork for what would become a massive global enterprise centuries later. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the British Empire reached its peak usage of penal transportation. The system removed offenders from society, often permanently, yet offered a more merciful alternative to capital punishment. Authorities used this method on criminals, debtors, military prisoners, and political dissidents alike. New settlements beyond the seas served a dual purpose: alleviating domestic social problems involving the poor and increasing the colonial labor force. Great Britain transported an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts and political prisoners to overseas colonies in the Americas between the 1610s and 1776. The Criminal Law Act of 1776 temporarily suspended transportation to America during the American Revolution. Scotland mandated the practice through the Transportation, etc. Act of 1785, though it remained less common there than in England. Large-scale resumption began with the departure of the First Fleet to Australia in 1787, continuing until 1868.

• 2. Legal Evolution And The Bloody Code

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  During the 17th and 18th centuries, criminal justice in England operated under what historians now call the Bloody Code. This era featured a particularly large number of offenses punishable by execution, usually hanging. Judges had limited choice of sentences for convicted criminals, creating severe legal rigidity. The traditional benefit of clergy originally exempted only clergymen from general criminal law but evolved into a legal fiction. Common offenders of clergyable offenses gained privilege to avoid execution through this mechanism. Many offenders received pardons because executing them for minor offenses seemed unreasonable. Yet escaping punishment entirely was equally viewed as unreasonable under the rule of law. Transportation emerged as an alternative punishment when colonies developed. It legally functioned as a condition of pardon rather than a sentence itself. Convicts representing a menace to the community were sent away to distant lands. A secondary aim discouraged crime through fear of being transported. In February 1663, after initial experiments, a bill proposed allowing the transporting of felons to the House of Commons. Another bill presented to the Lords sought to transport criminals convicted of felony within clergy or petty larceny. These bills failed initially, yet change became clearly necessary. The reading test remained a fundamental feature of the penal system throughout this period.

• 3. The Commercialization Of Convicts

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  Transportation transformed into a business where merchants selected prisoners based on labor demand and potential profits. Merchants obtained contracts from sheriffs and sold convicts as indentured servants upon arrival in the colonies. Payments covered jail fees, pardon grants, clerk fees, and all costs required to authorize transportation. These arrangements continued until the end of the 17th century before diminishing due to complications. Colonial opposition proved one main obstacle since colonies refused to accept prisoners deemed dangerous. Maryland and Virginia enacted laws prohibiting transportation in 1670, persuading the king to respect these restrictions. Profits from convict labor boosted colonial economies and consequently England's economy overall. King William's War between 1688 and 1697 adversely affected merchant shipping and hence transportation efforts. The War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714 similarly disrupted maritime operations. In the post-war period, increased crime created more executions requiring solutions. During Queen Anne's reign from 1702 to 1714 and George I's rule from 1714 to 1727, transportation became preferred punishment when imprisonment seemed insufficient. The Transportation Act introduced into the House of Commons in 1717 under Whig government legitimized transportation as a direct sentence. William Thomson, Solicitor General and architect of transportation policy, proposed paying merchants to transport convicts. The Treasury contracted Jonathan Forward, a London merchant, for transportation to the colonies starting in 1718. For each prisoner transported overseas, Forward received £3, rising to £5 by 1727.

• 4. Gender And Age In Transportation

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  Penal transportation applied not only to men but also to women and children throughout its history. From 1660 to 1670, highway robbery, burglary, and horse theft were offenses most often punishable with transportation for men. Five of nine women transported after being sentenced to death committed simple larceny during those years. Merchants consistently preferred young and able-bodied men for whom colonial labor demand existed. Most women and children remained simply left in jail due to these preferences. Some magistrates supported releasing untransportable women, yet this solution appeared absurd to Lords Justices. They ordered no distinction made between men and women regarding sentencing outcomes. Women went to Leeward Islands, the only colony accepting them, while government paid transport costs. Jamaica refused groups of prisoners in 1696 because most were women. Barbados similarly accepted convicts but excluded women, children, or infirm persons. Whipping and discharge became chosen more often for women when they faced capital offenses. Women with young children received support since transportation unavoidably separated families. The facts revealed how transportation applied less frequently to women and children because they usually committed minor crimes. They posed minimal threat to community safety compared to male offenders. Despite these disparities, significant portions of transported populations included women and some as young as ten years old.

• 5. Destinations Across The Empires

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  British convicts traveled to numerous regions across the British Empire between 1600 and mid-1800s. North America served as preferred location during First British Empire period before American Revolution. Australia became preferred destination following Second Empire period after Revolutionary War ended. A brief consideration of Cape Colony occurred mid-1800s due to growing Australian policy unpopularity. This resulted in Convict Crisis of 1849 preventing southern African colonies from becoming penal sites. From early 1600s until 1776, British colonies in North America received transported criminals. Destinations included West Indies island colonies and mainland territories becoming United States of America. Maryland received larger felon quota than any other province throughout this era. Many prisoners taken in battle from Ireland or Scotland sold into indentured servitude for years. After termination of North American transportation, British prisons became overcrowded with dilapidated ships pressed into service as floating gaols known as hulks. Following an 18th-century experiment transporting convicted prisoners to Cape Coast Castle in modern Ghana and Gorée in Senegal, authorities turned attention to New South Wales. In 1787, First Fleet group of convict ships departed England establishing first colonial settlement in Australia. The fleet arrived at Botany Bay on the 18th of January 1788 then moved to Sydney Cove establishing permanent European settlement. Norfolk Island east of Australian mainland served as convict penal settlement from 1788 to 1794 and again from 1824 to 1847. Van Diemen's Land modern-day Tasmania settled as penal colony in 1803 followed by Moreton Bay Settlement modern Brisbane Queensland in 1824.

• 6. The Soviet Deportation System

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  Unlike normal penal transportation, many Soviet people transported as criminals faced collective punishment forms declared enemies of the people. During Second World War, Soviet Union transported up to 1.9 million people from western republics to Siberia and Central Asian republics. Most were persons accused of treasonous collaboration with Nazi Germany or Anti-Soviet rebellion. Following Joseph Stalin death, most received rehabilitation while populations targeted included Volga Germans, Chechens, and Caucasian Turkic groups. Transportations had twofold objective removing potential liabilities from warfront providing human capital for eastern region industrialization. Policy continued until February 1956 when Nikita Khrushchev condemned transportation as violation of Leninist principles in speech On The Personality Cult And Its Consequences. While policy rescinded, transported populations did not return to original metropoles until after Soviet Union collapse in 1991. Modern Russia still sends convicts and political prisoners to prisons echoing those of Soviet Union era. Journey to these prisons and labor camps remains long and arduous process today. Special cars contain five large compartments and three smaller compartments measuring 3.5 meters squared. Larger car size approximately same as normal Russian railcar spaces. Six and a half individual sleeping spaces exist within larger compartments with three bunks on each wall plus half bunk between middle bunks preventing standing. Dehydrated food provided three times daily with limited hot water amounts for rehydration. Bedding absent along with mattresses during transit periods. Medication normally taken by prisoner carried by guards instead of self-administration.