Convict

"WARNING: HITCHHIKERS MAY BE ESCAPED CONVICTS."

- The Superintendent

A convict, also called a prisoner, is an individual serving a sentence of imprisonment after they are found guilty of a crime by a law authority. Individuals can be imprisoned for various reasons ranging from minor violations like theft to major crimes such as murder, piracy, terrorism, and treason. Convicts are convicted and incarcerated by their own peers unlike prisoners of war, who are combatants imprisoned by enemies forces following an armed conflict. Both human and Covenant often send their convicted criminals on prison ships to distant labor and correctional facilities, known as penal colonies.

Human
During the Human-Covenant War, UNSC humans could be punished with life imprisonment or execution if they violated the Cole Protocol. Human convicts would have prison barcodes tattooed onto their arms and would also be implanted with a tracking chip.

Covenant
The Covenant are known to incarcerate convicted client species in High Charity and in other detention facilities, where they are often tortured and disposed of. In some cases, Sangheili or Jiralhanae guards disposed of criminals by feeding them to Kig-Yar convicts, who would eat the victim alive.

Covenant cells and prisons are seemingly segregated by race. One such penitentiary, called Weeping Shadows of Sorrow, detained only Sangheili convicts. It was at this very facility where Ripa 'Moramee was incarcerated after being found guilty of staging a coup against his clan's Kaidon. 'Moramee's sentence was annulled when he was appointed Arbiter by the Prophet of Regret.

Prior to the Great Schism in 2552, the Prophet of Truth ordered that all imprisoned and criminal Jiralhanae were to be released, rehabilitated, and pardoned.

Although not seemingly convicted of any crimes, the Unmutuals, asocial Yanmee'e who suffered from personality disorders, were sentenced to work to death in penal colonies operated by Mgalekgolo and Kig-Yar guards.

In addition, disgraced warriors found by the High Council to be guilty of heresy would be publicly tortured and branded with the Mark of Shame, only to be sentenced to death soon after. This fate awaited Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee following his defeat at Installation 04. The terms of his execution were left in the hands of the Hierarchs, who overruled the council and allowed 'Vadamee to redeem himself by becoming the next Arbiter.

Forerunner
As an act of penance, Forerunners who had committed crimes could volunteer to be reformed and serve the Juridical rate as evidence-gathering agents. Those who did had their biological bodies reduced to a shriveled form and encased in a mechanical carapace. They were stripped of their individuality and personhood, becoming a collective entity committed to investigating criminal actions by citizens of the Ecumene.

List of appearances

 * Halo 2
 * Halo Wars: Genesis
 * Halo Wars
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Blunt Instruments
 * The Mona Lisa
 * Halo 2 Anniversary
 * Halo: Escalation