ABSTRACT
The practice of putting social outcasts and criminals to work has a long, and sometimes disturbing, history. In ancient Greece, criminals were put to work on both public and private projects. In what may be the first instance of government leasing of labor, stateowned slaves were leased to private mining operators to work in the silver mines in fifthcentury B.C. Greece. It was a major operation, with as many as ten thousand laborers at work at Laureion. Conditions in the mines were dangerous and led to many deaths.
