Taiping Prison (), formerly known as Larut Prison and Taiping Training Centre, is a prison in

Taiping, Perak Taiping () is a town located in Larut, Matang and Selama District, Perak, Malaysia. It is located approximately northwest of Ipoh, the capital of Perak, and southeast of George Town, Penang, George Town, Penang. With a population of 245,18 ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. Established in 1879, it is the first and oldest modern prison complex in the country.Institusi Penjara
prison.gov.my

History

In 1881, Sikh warders were brought in from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

to assist Malay warders while vocational trainers were brought in from

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

to introduce useful industry in the prison. In 1882, there was an exercise to place prison inmates into categories. In 1889, a European warder was appointed. With the establishment of the

Federated Malay States The Federated Malay States (FMS, , Jawi script, Jawi: ) was a federation of four protectorate, protected states in the Malay Peninsula — Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang — established in 1895 by the British government, and whi ...

, Taiping Prison became the detention centre for prisoners with long sentences from Perak,

Pahang {{Infobox political division , name = Pahang , official_name = Pahang Darul Makmur , native_name = , settlement_type = States and federal territories of Malaysia, State , image_skyline = , imagesize ...

Negeri Sembilan Negeri Sembilan (, Negeri Sembilan Malay: ''Nogoghi Sombilan'', ''Nismilan''), historically spelled as Negri Sembilan, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia which lies on the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, wes ...

and

Selangor Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the e ...

. In 1923, the system of "Visiting Justices" was introduced. Prison industry had been developed and included printing works, cloth production, sewing and rattan and ironworking. In 1924, stoneworking was halted and replaced with coconut dehusking. During the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945, Taiping Prison was used as a public prison and also a

prisoner-of-war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

detention centre. All records of the prison and its inmates during this period were destroyed by the end of the war.

References

{{coord, 4, 51, 38, N, 100, 44, 52, E, type:landmark, display=title Prisons in Malaysia History of Perak British Malaya British colonial prisons in Asia Buildings and structures in Perak 1879 establishments in the British Empire