Agricultural penal colonies predated Mettray by two decades

Evidence

Mettray, however, was not the first experiment in outdoor relief or disciplinary charity. The Dutch Benevolent Society had created an earlier version in 1818 for criminals, beggars, orphans, and paupers. France, too, in the 1820s, prior to Mettray, had turned to agricultural reform colonies. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 768