Insein Prison () is located in

Yangon Division Yangon Region (, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in central Myanmar, the region is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, and Ayeyarwady ...

, near

Yangon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

(Rangoon), the old capital of

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

(formerly Burma). From 1988 to 2011 it was run by the military junta of Myanmar, named the State Law and Order Restoration Council from 1988 to 2003 and the

State Peace and Development Council The State Peace and Development Council ( ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the official name of the Military dictatorship, military government of Burma (Myanmar) which, in 1997, succeeded the State Law and Order Restoration Council (; abbrevi ...

(SPDC) from 2003 to 2011, and was used largely to repress

political dissidents Political dissent is a dissatisfaction with or opposition to the policies of a governing body. Expressions of dissent may take forms from vocal disagreement to civil disobedience to the use of violence.

History

Insein Prison was established in 1887 during British colonial rule, approximately north of downtown Rangoon (now Yangon). The facility was constructed to relieve overcrowding at the Rangoon Central Gaol, located on Commissioner's Road (now

Bogyoke Aung San Road Bogyoke Aung San Road (, formerly Montgomery Road) is a major road of southern Yangon, Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country i ...

) near

Downtown Yangon Downtown Yangon (also known as the Yangon Central Business District or Yangon CBD, formerly the Cantonment) is the central business district of Yangon, Myanmar, located close to the geographic centre of the metropolitan area. The area features ma ...

. By 1908, both Insein and Rangoon jails each held over 2,000 inmates, making them the largest prisons in

British Burma British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

. Prison population statistics were seen by colonial authorities as a sign of effective law enforcement, despite growing concerns about prison overcrowding and harsh conditions. During the 1920s, Burma had developed a reputation as one of the most violent provinces of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. With a population of around 13 million, nearly 20,000 individuals—mostly men—were imprisoned annually. Overcrowding led to expansions of existing prisons, including Insein. Architecturally, Insein Prison was modeled on the Pentonville

panopticon The panopticon is a design of institutional building with an inbuilt system of control, originated by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be ...

system, inspired by 18th-century penal theorist

Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (; 4 February Dual dating, 1747/8 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.

5 February 1748 Old Style and New Style dates, N.S. 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

– 6 June 1832) was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer regarded as the founder of mo ...

. This design featured radial wings extending from a central observation tower, allowing maximum surveillance and minimal interaction among inmates. It emphasized reform through labor and strict discipline, reflecting evolving penal philosophies of the British Empire. Following the demolition of Rangoon Central Gaol after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(its former site is now occupied by the New

General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera created by Frank and Doris Hursley which has been broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC since April 1, 1963. Originally a half-hour seria ...

), Insein became the principal prison serving the Rangoon region. Its reputation for brutality intensified during the military dictatorship of General Ne Win (1962–1988), when it was used to imprison political opponents. Conditions were described as inhumane, with reports of torture, prolonged solitary confinement, and medical neglect. The prison gained international notoriety after the crackdown on the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. Thousands of activists, students, and intellectuals were detained at Insein under harsh conditions. Among its most well-known former inmates is Dr. Ma Thida, a writer and physician imprisoned from 1993 to 1999. Her memoir, ''Sanchaung, Insein, Harvard'', recounts her experiences and eventual academic journey. By 2009, Insein had a theoretical capacity of 5,000 to 6,000 inmates, but was believed to be housing up to 10,000. Despite government claims in the 2010s that all political prisoners had been released, independent organizations, including the United Nations and the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP), reported continued arrests and detentions of political dissidents. The AAPP operates a replica of an Insein prison cell to raise awareness of prison conditions and honor those imprisoned for their beliefs. As of 2015, the AAPP estimated that around 160 political prisoners remained behind its walls, underscoring its ongoing role in Myanmar’s human rights challenges.

Conditions

Sanitation and healthcare

At Insein, diseases and injuries usually go untreated. A former prisoner at Insein recalls that "When we had fever they never gave us any medicine. If it gets very bad then they send you to the prison hospital, where many people die. The sick prisoners want to go to the hospital, but the guards never send them there until it's already too late, so many die once they get to the hospital. I got fever but I didn't want to go to their hospital, because I was afraid of their dirty needles and contagious diseases. At the hospital they have doctors, but not enough medicines." The same prisoner continued, "They allowed us to have a bath once a day. We had to line up in rows of five men at a time, and we were allowed five bowls of water, then soap, then seven more bowls of water. But there were many problems – sometimes there was no water supply, so they wouldn't let us take a bath and we could hardly even get water to drink. There were latrines in two places – outside of the room for the daytime, and in the room at night. The latrines always had guards, and to use them you had to bribe the guard with two

cheroot The cheroot is a filterless cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them popular. The word 'cheroot' probably comes via Portug ...

s. The latrine was just a bucket, with no water. You could use paper if you could get some, but we used to beg scraps of cloth from the men who worked in the sewing workshop out in the compound."

Tortures

Prisoners have reportedly been beaten with a rubber pipe filled with sand and chased by dogs, forcing them to crawl on their hands and knees across a gravel path.

Protests within the prison

1991 prisoner hunger strike

According to a former prisoner's account, in 1991 several prisoners held a hunger strike, demanding proper healthcare and the right to read newspapers. However, their demands were not met, and the prisoners were tortured using the gravel path method.

2008 mass shooting of inmates

On 3 May 2008, over 100 prisoners were shot by guards at the prison resulting in the deaths of 36 inmates. A further four inmates were later tortured and killed by the prison guards who believed they had been the ringleaders of the initial protest that culminated in the mass shooting.

2011 prisoner hunger strike

On 24 May 2011, the

Myanmar government Myanmar ( formerly Burma) () operates ''de jure'' as a unitary assembly-independent republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests. Po ...

retaliated against a hunger strike by about 30 political prisoners in the prison by forcing the ringleaders into solitary confinement. The hunger strike began when seven female prisoners protested against a government prisoner amnesty program that failed to include most political detainees. On 23 May, 22 male prisoners, including three Buddhist monks, joined the protest, demanding better prison living conditions and improved family visiting rights. According to Aung Din, the executive director of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma, "The latest information we have received is that six of the ‘leaders’ of the strike from the male group have been moved to what is known as the 'dog cell'—a small cell block where they could be tortured and family visits are not allowed." One of the prisoners moved was an editor of ''The Kantaryawaddy Times'', Nyi Nyi Htun.

2022 prison explosion

In October 2022, a blast occurred at the prison in which eight persons died, including guards, and 18 visitors were injured. The incident occurred at 9:40 AM

Myanmar Standard Time Myanmar Standard Time (, ), formerly Burma Standard Time (BST), is the standard time in Myanmar, 6.5 hours ahead of UTC. Myanmar Standard Time (MMT) is calculated on the basis of 97°30′E longitude.MFF 2002: 1 MMT is used all year round, as My ...

. According to local witnesses, two

parcel bomb A letter bomb is an explosive device sent via the mail, postal service, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used in terrorism, terrorist attacks such as those of the Theodore Kaczynski, U ...

s detonated in the morning. but the cause of explosion is yet unknown

Notable prisoners

Most famous illegally held prisoners in Insein prison from 1988 to 2017: * Student leaders of the

1988 Uprising The 8888 Uprising, also known as the People Power Uprising and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) that peaked in August 1988. Key events occurred on 8 August 1988 and ther ...

, including among others:

Min Ko Naing Paw Oo Tun ( ; born 18 October 1962), better known by his alias Min Ko Naing ( , lit. "conqueror of kings"), is a leading democracy activist and dissident from Myanmar. He has spent most of the years since 1988 imprisoned by the state for his op ...

Pyone Cho Pyone Cho (Burmese: ပြုံးချို); born Htay Win Aung; born 2 April 1966), whose name means "sweet smile" in Burmese, is an activist and former political prisoner, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Represen ...

Ko Ko Gyi Ko Ko Gyi (, born 18 December 1961) is a Burmese politician and leading democracy activist. For his protests against the State Peace and Development Council, military government, he spent over 17 years in prison on multiple occasions between 198 ...

Kyaw Min Yu Kyaw Min Yu (; also known as Ko Jimmy; 13 February 1969 – 23 July 2022) was a Burmese writer, political prisoner, and a member of the 88 Generation Students Group. He was executed in July 2022 after being sentenced to death for activism again ...

, and Mya Aye. * Intellectual and democracy activist

Win Tin Win Tin (, , 12 March 1929 – 21 April 2014) was a Burmese journalist, politician and political prisoner. He co-founded the National League for Democracy (NLD). He was imprisoned by the military government for 19 years (1989–2008) for his writ ...

, and a host of others who were elected to parliament as members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in 1990 but not allowed to serve their term in parliament. *

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Myanmar), Ministe ...

the Nobel Peace Prize-winner human-rights activist was confined to Insein in 2003, 2007 and 2009). * Video-journalist Sithu Zeya who was arrested in April 2010 for photographing the aftermath of an attack on civilians by the military junta as a reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma. * Video-journalist Ngwe Soe Lin who was arrested in an internet cafe in

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

on April 14, 2010, for his video coverage of Burmese children orphaned by

Cyclone Nargis Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis (; , ) was an extremely destructive and deadly tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar during early May 2008. The cyclone made landfall in Myanmar on Friday ...

in 2008. Democracy activist Aye Yung was held for trial at Insein Prison for distribution of leaflets at

Dagon University Dagon University ( ), located in North Dagon Township, North Dagon, Yangon, is one of the largest universities in Myanmar. The university, established in 1993, offers bachelor's and master's degrees in liberal arts and sciences to full-time, part ...

. *

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were held for more than 500 days following their arrest on 12 December 2017, due to their investigation of the Inn Din massacre. Amid international outcry over their imprisonment, both were released on 7 May 2019, following a pardon from

President of Myanmar The president of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar () is the head of state and constitutional head of government of Myanmar. The president chairs the National Defence and Security Council and normally leads the Cabinet of Myanmar, the ...

Win Myint Win Myint ( ; born 8 November 1951) is a Burmese politician who served as the tenth president of Myanmar from 2018 to 2021, when he was removed from office in the 2021 coup d'état. He was the speaker of the House of Representatives from 2016 ...

. While imprisoned in Insein Prison, Wa Lone wrote a children's book, ''Jay Jay the Journalist''.Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo: Reuters journalists freed in Myanmar
''www.bbc.co.uk''

References

External links

PDF "Burma's Insein Prison: punishment and oppression"

Burma Campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi in Insein Prison

{{coord, 16.892715, 96.097986, type:landmark, display=title Prisons in Myanmar Buildings and structures in Yangon Region 1887 establishments in Asia