To be sentenced to the workhouse or the reformatory meant two kinds of forced labour. Those punishments were used in the period 1866 - 1930.

Convicts could be sent to the reformatory for periods from 8 months to 6 years. The prisoners, called cell prisoners, were isolated in individual cells where they were put to work.

Sentences in the workhouse lasted from 2 years to a life term. The inmates, called common prisoners, were put to work during the day in a large common room under strict supervision, while their nights were spent in cells for sleeping.

Both forms of forced labour were abolished as part of the new criminal code in 1930.