罪犯从事作业是清末监狱改良的产物,学界对监狱改良有一些研究,绝大多数都以刑罚制度为研究重点。笔者从两个方面还原罪犯作业的原貌:作业经费的筹集及作业收益。说明:罪犯作业的经费来源并不是通常理解的方式——国家统一提供,而是各监狱自行筹措,挪借、捐纳、集资等都有使用。罪犯作业产品有多种获取收益的方式,在经费投入先天不足的情况下作业的收益注定比较微弱,明盈暗亏成为表征。从某种意义上讲,罪犯作业经济收益的分析更说明监狱早期现代化过程缓慢的事实。 Criminals engaged in homework was the product of prison reform in the late Qing Dynasty. Some scholars studied the improvement of prisons. Most of them focused on the punishment system. The author restores the original appearance of criminal operations from two aspects: the collection of operating expenses and the operating income. Explanation: The sources of funding for criminals’ operations are not commonly understood by the state, but are used by the prisons for their own financing, borrowing, donation and fund-raising. Criminals operating products have a variety of ways to obtain revenue, operating income in the case of inherent funding deficiencies doomed relatively weak, Ming Ying dark loss as a sign. In a sense, the analysis of the economic benefits of offender operations further illustrates the fact that the early modernization of prisons was slow.