Apenal military unit, also known as apenal formation,disciplinary unit, or justpenal unit (usually named for their formation and size, such aspenal battalion forbattalions,penal regiment forregiments,penal company forcompanies, etc.), is amilitary formation consisting ofconvicts mobilized formilitary service. Such formations may consist of military prisoners convicted undermilitary law, civilian prisoners convicted in civiliancourts,prisoners of war who have chosen to side with their captors, or a combination of these groups.
Service in penal military units is generally considered a form of punishment, discipline, orpenal labour, used in lieu of, or offered as an alternative to,imprisonment orcapital punishment. Penal units have historically been used as disposablecannon fodder, treated poorly or with little regard and used in compromising or dangerous situations (commonlysuicide missions such asdemining orforlorn hope advance parties), asmarch battalions that maintain replacement personnel asreserves, or kept in therear formilitary operations other than war or menial labour relating to thewar effort, guarded and overseen by regular military units,military police, orbarrier troops to ensure they do not attempt toescape,retreat, ormutiny. However, this is not always the case: some penal units are treated the same as regular units and, depending on military organization, a dedicated penal unit may not exist at all, with convicts instead being placed in a regular unit. Rewards and incentives for convicts to serve in a penal unit vary—oftenexpungement,commutation,stay of execution, or apardon—though penal units used as punishment typically lack those by nature.
The first known penal military units were recorded inimperial China. Since then, several nations and armed forces across history and the world have also fielded penal units of varying sizes with varying roles. Penal units are extremely rare in the modern day, with most militaries relying instead onvolunteers andconscripts formilitary personnel, and convicts and criminals—typically only accepted into military service out of necessity—usually being placed into regular units. The hiring of prisoners for combat and military service, often in exchange for freedom, is a commontrope in modernfiction andpopular culture, with narratives centering around penal units appearing in films, television, novels, and video games.
One of the earliest examples of penal military units was established, were written in the Chinese annalsRecords of the Grand Historian andBook of Han. During theHan–Dayuan War, unhappy with the failure of GeneralLi Guangli in an earlier expedition in 104 BC,Emperor Wu of Han promised amnesty and rewards to criminals, prisoners and bandits (赦囚徒捍寇盜) and dispatched a 60,000-strong army consisting of "bad boys" (惡少年) to attack theGreco-Bactrian kingdom ofDayuan in 102 BC.[1]
Dedicated penal units were first envisioned during theNapoleonic era of warfare, as large armies formed of conscripts often suffered from disciplinary problems.[2] Soldiers who refused to face the enemy were seen as detrimental to the cohesion of the army and as a disgrace to the nation. The formation of penal battalions was seen as a way of disciplining an army and keeping soldiers in line. In addition, many nations conscripted criminals into penal battalions in lieu of imprisoning or executing them during wartime to better utilize national manpower. Such military units were treated with little regard by the regular army and were often placed in compromising situations, such as being used inforlorn hope assaults.[2]The French Empire in particular was notable for employing penal military units during thewars of the coalition, especially during the later years of the conflicts as manpower became limited. TheRégiment pénal de l'Île de Ré, formed in 1811 and composed almost entirely of criminals and other societal undesirables, would see action during the later years of theNapoleonic Wars.[3]
The disbandment of conscripted armies and end of large scale warfare following the Napoleonic era led to the decline of the penal battalion system in continental Europe. However, the system continued in overseas colonies, again with the French as the primary employers of penal battalions. TheBattalions of Light Infantry of Africa (Bats d'Af) was formed by order ofLouis Philippe I in 1832 for the purpose of expanding theFrench colonial empire.[4] The Battalions fought in theFrench conquest of Algeria and during theCrimean War.[5] The French also employed thecompagnies d'exclus ("companies of the excluded"), military units which were stationed at Aîn-Sefra in Southern Algeria. In contrast to theBats d'Af, thecompagnies d'exclus were outright penal units consisting of convicts condemned to five years or more of hard labor and judged unworthy to carry weapons.[6]
The variousItalian unification conflicts saw theRedshirts recruiting convicts and revolutionaries from prisons into penal regiments known asBattaglioni degli imprigionati ("Battalions of the Imprisoned" or "Prisoners Battalion".)
Prior to the early 1900s, thePortuguese Empire relied largely on military convicts to augment the regular and indigenous troops employed to provide garrisons for its overseas colonies.
DuringWorld War I, theBritish Armed Forces were mobilized for military service. Courts offered defendants the option of enlisting to avoid imprisonment, while young offenders inborstals and adult prisoners were granted early release for their service. Though government officials publicly claimed criminals were unfit for service, and prisoners were viewed as lacking "the sense of duty that encouraged other men to enlist", the recruitment of prisoners was a military necessity, and prisoners were reportedly sought out for their violent nature and to ease the cost of the prison system in wartime.[7]
The period of military rearmament precedingWorld War II caused renewed interest in the concept of penal military units. In May 1935 the GermanWehrmacht instituted a new policy under German conscription law that stated soldiers who were deemed disruptive to military discipline but were otherwise "worthy of service" would be sent to military penal units. Criminals were also conscripted into penal units in exchange for lighter sentences or as a form ofstay of execution.[8] These units, referred to as "special departments" or the generic termStrafbataillon, were overseen by theGerman military police. Prior to World War II, there were nineStrafbataillone within theWehrmacht. The primary role of aStrafbataillon was to provide front line support. As the war progressed, the size ofStrafbataillon companies dramatically increased in size due to changes in German military policy. Under such policies, any soldier who had a death sentence (for retreat) commuted was automatically reassigned to penal units, greatly increasing the number of soldiers available to theStrafbataillon.
The effectiveness ofStrafbataillone were mixed. The combination of criminals, political prisoners, and undisciplined soldiers that made up aStrafbataillon often required harsh measures to be imposed for unit cohesion to be maintained.Strafbataillone were often ordered to undertake high risk missions on the front line, with soldiers being coached to regain their lost honor by fighting.[9] Certain penal military units, such as the36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, gained a reputation as being brutal towards civilian populations and prisoners of war, and were employed asanti-partisan troops due to the fear they inspired.[10][11][12] Other units, most notably the999th Light Afrika Division, suffered from poor morale and saw soldiers desert theWehrmacht to join resistance groups.[13]
FollowingOperation Barbarossa and the entry of theSoviet Union into World War II, theRed Army began to seriously consider the implementation of penal military units. These efforts resulted in the creation ofShtrafbat, penal military units composed of sentenced soldiers, political prisoners, and others deemed to be expendable. A large number of Red Army soldiers who retreated without orders during the initial German invasion were reorganized into rudimentary penal units, the precursors to dedicatedShtrafbat. TheShtrafbat were greatly increased in number byJoseph Stalin in July 1942 viaOrder No. 227 (Директива Ставки ВГК №227). Order No. 227 was a desperate effort to re-instill discipline after the panicked routs of the first year of combat with Germany. The order—popularized as the "Not one step back!" (Ни шагу назад!,Ni shagu nazad!) Order—introduced severe punishments, includingsummary execution, for unauthorized retreats.[14][15]
During theChinese Civil War, between 1945 and 1949, theNational Revolutionary Army (NRA) was known to have fielded penal battalions. Made up of deserters and those accused of cowardice, these penal battalions were given dangerous tasks such as scouting ahead of the main forces to check for ambushes, crossing rivers and torrents to see whether they were fordable, and traversing unmapped minefields.[16]
In theUnited States, theUnited States Armed Forces historically fielded penal units and permitted the enlistment of prisoners. During theAmerican Civil War, theUnion permittedGalvanized Yankees,Confederate prisoners of war who swore allegiance to the Union, into their ranks in penal units from 1862 to around 1866. During World War II, prisoners were permitted to provide to the war effort, and in 1942, it was reported that several prisoners had offered to enlist in the military to fight in the war, with some even receiving training ahead of enlistment, though no penal units are known to have been formed in the U.S. military.[17]
U.S. courts offered defendants the choice between enlistment and prison during both world wars and theKorean War until at least theVietnam War; reportedly, this was howR. Lee Ermey, aU.S. Marine Corpsstaff sergeant anddrill instructor known for his acting role in the 1987 filmFull Metal Jacket, enlisted as a 17-year-old delinquent in 1961.[18] However, convicts were not placed in separate penal units, and the practice was entirely up to the judge with the military having the option to reject the defendant.[19][20] Presently, all branches of the U.S. military forbid the acceptance of convicts, both after sentencing and as an alternative to imprisonment (except theU.S. Navy, which does not have specific prohibitions but still strongly discourages it as a protocol),[20] and do not maintain any penal formations, though ex-convicts withfelony priors are still permitted with a properfelony waiver.[21][22] In 2021, theFlorida Legislature proposed a bill that would formally permit first-time offenders 25-years-old or younger to enlist instead of facing imprisonment, though it did not pass.[19][23]
In the modern day, the practice of fielding penal military units has largely stopped, with most militaries discouraging or outright prohibiting the acceptance of convicts, though some militaries accept ex-convicts provided they fulfill certain requirements, such as having a properwaiver. For example, a U.S. military recruiter toldThe Daily Beast in 2018 that recruitment candidates can have "one non-violent felony as an adult", and that "some of the best and most capable candidates we get require a waiver".[21] However, though rare, the practice of accepting convicts into armed forces has continued or been made permissible in some jurisdictions and situations. During theRussian invasion of Ukraine, for instance, theArmed Forces of Ukraine permitted the recruitment of Ukrainian prisoners with prior combat experience,[24] and Russianprivate military companyWagner Group began hiring Russian inmates to fill their ranks.[25][26][27]
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