# Whay aren't penal colonies the norm? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whay-arent-penal-colonies-the-norm/551447 "2010-08-25T20:30:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whay-arent-penal-colonies-the-norm/551447/21 "2010-08-26T20:20:34Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > But why not declare that enemies of society have no rights, and just shoot them? Because there’s this small, emotional part of me that I can’t excise. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whay-arent-penal-colonies-the-norm/551447/22 "2010-08-26T20:40:29Z")
Back when Australia was a penal colony it was very hard to leave - big oceans, large waves and long distances back to the UK. These days you could sail or fly straight home without too much bother. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whay-arent-penal-colonies-the-norm/551447/23 "2010-08-26T21:02:09Z")
I suggest watching _Papillon_ with Dustin Hoffman. Documents life in French penitentiary on Devil’s Island in French Guiana. Hard to imagine we’d ever subject prisoners to that misery these days. Has their ever been an open prison colony without cells or guards? Devils Island had cells. Prisoners didn’t just sleep on the beach. I’m not sure about Australia. Did they simply kick the prisoners off the boat and sail away? The biggest concern would be the violence and oppression from more dangerous prisoners. Eventually you’d have riots and full scale war within the prison colony. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whay-arent-penal-colonies-the-norm/551447/24 "2010-08-26T21:10:47Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Easy: we define constitutionally that enemies of society have no constitutional rights, and we dump them on an island. But I’m too much a pragmatist to ever be taken seriously. So much for inalienable rights, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whay-arent-penal-colonies-the-norm/551447/25 "2010-08-26T21:35:59Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Has their ever been an open prison colony without cells or guards? Devils Island had cells. Prisoners didn’t just sleep on the beach. I’m not sure about Australia. Did they simply kick the prisoners off the boat and sail away? No, the tranportees were put to work, either by the colonial government or rented out. The convicts weren’t free to wander away, either, they were prisoners for however long they were sentenced too. After their sentence was served, the prisoners were free to do as they liked, and could even return to Britain if they could ever scrape together the money to pay for their passage, which wasn’t exactly likely. ---
**Author:** ![king\_gorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9fc29f/32.png) [@king\_gorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/king_gorilla)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whay-arent-penal-colonies-the-norm/551447/26 "2010-08-28T10:38:45Z")
[quote=“Lemur866, post:15, topic:551447”] > [@Belowjob2.0](#): > > It seems to me that the prison colony serves the exact same purpose as a regular prison. Prison is a place to segregate dangerous people from society, so they can’t harm us. It is unpleasant, so it serves as a deterrent to potential criminals who don’t want to go there. It is a place where prisoners can be rehabilitated so when they get out they can contribute to society. Oh, and it could be an economic purpose–the prisoners are forced to work at slave labor. It is against federal law to _force_ an inmate to work. Prisons can restrict certain privileges in order to motivate inmates to work, however the days of being physically forced onto a chain gang and beaten or starved if you refused to work are over. And I’m not sure what constitutes slave labor? Inmates have different jobs available depending on where and by whom they are incarcerated by. The basics include cooking in the kitchen, laundry, and cleaning the facility. The average wage is probably between $0.25 and $1.00 an hour. A low wage sure, but it’s not like they are paying rent, utilities, food, or medical. I have never seen or heard of a jail or prison that operates anywhere close to the black, because of labor generated by inmates. Logically it would seem, that having a _job_ would be a necessary step in the rehabilitative process. And I don’t see anything wrong with a prison utilizing capable inmates to cut down the costs of incarceration. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whay-arent-penal-colonies-the-norm/551447.md?page=1)