The Taiping Prison ( ms, Penjara Taiping; formerly known as Larut Prison and Taiping Training Centre) was established in 1879 and is the first and oldest modern prison complex in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

.Institusi Penjara
prison.gov.my It was also the largest prison complex at the time. In 1881 Sikh warders were brought in to assist Malay warders and vocational trainers were brought in from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

to introduce useful industry in the prison.

History

In 1882 there was an exercise to place prison inmates into categories. In 1889 a European warder was appointed. With the establishment of the Federate Malay States, Taiping Prison became the detention centre for prisoners with long sentences from Perak,

Pahang Pahang (; Jawi: , Pahang Hulu Malay: ''Paha'', Pahang Hilir Malay: ''Pahaeng'', Ulu Tembeling Malay: ''Pahaq)'' officially Pahang Darul Makmur with the Arabic honorific ''Darul Makmur'' (Jawi: , "The Abode of Tranquility") is a sultanate and ...

, Negri Sembilan and

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

. 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. In World War II, during the Japanese occupation (1941-1945), Taiping Prison was used as a public prison and also a Japanese prisoner-of-war detention centre. It was during this period that all records about the prison and its inmates were destroyed. The prison still operates to this day as Penjara Taiping.

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