Penal labour is a generic term for various kinds of
unfree labour which
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.