The prison’s opening ceremony was a grand affair attended by the Sultan and honoured guests. The road outside was decorated with venetian poles, flags and the guard house was decked out with festoons and bunting.
A silver key was specially made for the ceremony and it came with its own ornamental box with a violet lining.

Behind its high walls, the prison was composed of many different buildings, such as a canteen, workshops, a hospital, dispensary and cell blocks. In its overall construction no stone was left unturned; at the planning stages the foundation work had even been specified to be made from granite sourced from quarries on Pulau Ubin.

Johore at that point in history had been one of the last hold-out independent Malayan states outside the British controlled Federated States of Malaya (FMS). The FMS was first established 1895 and was composed of 4 states, Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang.
Britain had been looking for ways to bring Johor into the FMS fold and thus have complete control of Malaya as a whole.

The prison became a focal point of contention, but it was just the cherry on top of a much larger mountain of issues that the British had with Johor’s running.

In 1911, there was a breakout from the prison’s hospital . A meeting was arranged with the Sultan to discuss the incident as well as to bring up other points about the prisons administration.

Below were some of those concerns :

News prisoners into the facility were not given any medical screenings, a risky decision for any densely populated institution. Prisoner’s criminal backgrounds, whether it was petty offences or serious crimes, were not taken into account and everyone was treated the same, including locking them up in the same cells. The British also had misgivings of shackled prison labour being used on private estates of the elites.

From this point on there was a powerplay for control between the Sultan and the British, this was not only for control over Johor prison but for the entire state of Johor itself.

The Sultan was certainly unhappy at any attempt to take power away from him and over the next couple of years undertook certain steps to redress the balance of influence where he could, much to British frustrations.

In 1914, things started to come to a head when a Prison Commission report was ordered by the British on Johor prison. The thorough report went on to showcase how ill managed and how dire the conditions had become there. The report was to be one of the main tools to finally wrestle power away from Sultan Ibrahim and into British hands.

The British drew up a new treaty which Sultan Ibrahim was compelled to sign. The treaty gave the British General Advisor to Johore far reaching powers which essentially side lined the Sultan. The Sultan had to now accept all advice given by the General Advisor on all things, except for matters of Malay religion and custom.

The era of British Malaya had now begun.

During the inter-war years, the prison expanded in scale with the addition of new buildings to support the needs of a growing prisoner population. This also included female prisoners who were housed within their own area.
Inmates were actively put to work outside the prison’s walls labouring for the Public Works department and undertaking jobs such as earth works, drainage and tree felling. Inmates who remained inside were also employed in work which included baking, carpentry, tailoring and furniture making.

Under the Vagrancy act of 1921, Johor prison was also used as a Vagrant Ward, housing vagrants with the view to keep them off the streets and for finding them work. However, those able-bodied who refused to work could face imprisonment or if applicable, be deported.

From its inception, the prison was also actively tasked in carrying out the death penalty.
It’s been claimed that in the early days of JB’s history, executions were held in public, with frenzied crowds thronging to see such disturbing spectacles.

Before British administration in 1914, the gallows were reported to be located behind the prison, outside of its main walls and in public view. The gallows was even said to be within view of at least one neighbouring residential bungalow, where it had allegedly been customary to view such hangings, whether intended, or not!

“Struggling in vain”, is a disturbing but interesting observation, it suggests that the prison at that time was still conducting hangings using the outdated short-rope technique.
In England in 1872, a newer hanging method called the long-drop had been scientifically developed, whereby a prisoner’s weight and height is factored into the method. The new process was all about swiftly dispatching the condemned by cleanly breaking their necks. The old short-rope method merely worked by strangulation which could take several agonising minutes until death occurred.

At least in the British controlled Federated Malay States, the long-drop method was already being discussed, and a document dated from 1882 outlined this technique with explicit written details of the whole dreadful procedure. Johor’s adoption of this technique was seemingly yet to take hold at least until perhaps British administration took over in 1914.

In 1916, a fascinating written account by visiting Australian sailors described how things had since changed at the prison. Executions had now been moved within the prison walls and the gallows was described to have looked more like a store or stable than a place of execution. Entry into the gallows was up 4 wooden steps and through a pair of old wooden doors. The interior was simple and functional; a pair of trap doors, a lever and a hempen rope was all that was pointed out.

When World War 2 came, the fall of Malaya to the invading Japanese was swift and bewildering to its colonial defenders. These events also produced an ironic twist of history where many of Malaya’s former white masters ended up interned inside their own former prisons. But for all those held captive, civilians, soldiers, Asians and Europeans alike, conditions were harsh and brutal for everyone.

Command at all the prisons in Malaya including Johore, fell under the control of the infamous Japanese military police, the Kempeitai. Arguably, it was during these times that the prison’s notoriety really took root within the public imagination with stories abound of torture and executions. Stories have even been passed down through the decades by serving Malaysian prison guards, even to this day.

After the war, a war crimes investigation team was put together in 1946 to collect information and find witnesses of alleged abuses that had occurred at the prison. The team was under the command of Flt Lt P.A Townsend (Administrative And Special Duties Branch), and was headquartered at the Supreme Court building in JB town.

By January 1947, 13 Japanese war criminal suspects and 20 convicted Japanese war criminals were being held at the prison. More sobering were the figures across the causeway at Changi jail, with 1315 Japanese war criminal suspects held, 37 awaited the death penalty and 70 having already met their fates at the noose.

There exists two war crimes cases of particular interest as these offences had occurred inside Johor prison itself.

CASE 1

The first case involved a Seargent Teruo Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi was convicted on 3 charges, 2 of the charges were for the killings of two prisoners and the 3rd charge alleging the killings of ‘numerous’ others as of unidentified prisoners in the prison’s interrogation room.
Yamaguchi was witnessed to have used various forms of torture on prisoners which included, beatings with a 4 foot, 4 inch thick rod, electrocution, water torture and beatings using “Jujitsu style” attacks.

There was clapping in the courtroom when Yamaguchi was handed the death sentence in August 1946. Yamaguchi was to be the very first war criminal to be put to death at the prison. An official release stated that it was reasons of ‘poetic justice’ that the execution be carried out at Johor and not Changi.

The 2nd war crime case was against a Seargent Takoa Homma. Homma was nicknamed “prince charming”, by prisoners. Homma had been conducting an interrogation and torture on 2 prisoners on 3 separate days over the month of April 1945.
On the last day, Homma had hung by the neck one of the prisoners with a rope tied from a ceiling beam. Whilst hanging, the prisoner was swung back and forth by the accused and his Taiwanese assistant for 15 minutes, then left dangling for another 5 minutes, after which the prisoner’s lifeless body was cut down.

Homma was also accused in another incident where he tortured a prisoner at the prisons water well. The prisoner was first beaten with a cane then had his hands tied and was held under water for 5 minutes in the well. It’s interesting to note that the water well site is a common focal point in old horror stories passed down that regularly link it to prisoner abuses. The well today is commonly known as “General Yamashita’s well’, named after the Japanese commander of the invasion force of Malaya in WW2.

Homma was put to death on July 21, 1947 at 9am, at Johor prison.

Just as Malaya was sorting its self out after a world war and laying those demons to rest, that a new bloody conflict appeared on its doorstep. In 1948, communist insurgents began a guerilla war against the colonial government with the aim of independence from Britain and forming a Malayan communist state. This period is known as the Malayan Emergency.

The British declared a state of emergency and implemented the Emergency Regulations. These harsh regulations granted far reaching powers to the authorities over such things as arrest, detention and movement. Under these conditions, the courts could apply the mandatory death penalty to anyone caught with an unauthorised firearm, ammunition or explosives.

Newspapers of the day regularly reported on the court trials and executions of communist terrorists, including those convicted and put to death at JB prison.

In 1963, Malaysia had to once again face down yet another armed conflict. This time it was an undeclared war initiated by Indonesian president Sukarno’s opposition of the creation of the state of Malaysia. This conflict became known as the, Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation.
There were many cross-border battles in East Malaysia as well as small enemy unit infiltrations into West Malaysia, including Singapore.

Captured Indonesian soldiers were held at various detention centres dotted around Malaysia, which included Johor prison. In 1966, the conflict ended when Sukarno was deposed. Later that same year, all 445 prisoners of war held at Johor were repatriated back to Indonesia.

Up through the 2000’s, JB prison remained in operation but it languished in a time warp. The prison was now over 120 years old, it was out of date and un fit for purpose in modern times.

From 2005 onward, the prison saw a patchy period in its existence, it closed down, became a museum, then later reopened again as a police remand centre.
As a remand centre, in function it ticked over but was still burdened by all the same problems it previously had, over-crowding, crumbling infrastructure and outbreaks of disease.
Finally in 2018, the old prison was shutdown for good and the site left completely abandoned.

The prison was left to dwell like this for several years where it quickly became overgrown and wild. In that time a kind of peacefulness was created within it; the urban hustle and bustle was kept at bay by the high walls and in a way the prison became like a secret walled garden. This inner sanctuary attracted an abundant array of wild birds who nested within its green spaces and filled the air with their song.
However, a different atmosphere entirely awaited anyone who dared enter the prison’s old cell blocks. Out of the sunlight, these old interiors rotted away in a dark twilight world. The air inside was thick and laced with the ever-present odour of decay. One could easily imagine unspeakable demons conjured from the prisons bloody past dwelling there, watching and waiting.

In 2025, the prisons fortunes have since changed for the better. With the help of a private group and local government, work has begun to restore and persevere the 142 year old prison. The ultimate plan is to see the prison repurposed into a museum, market, as well as a centre for cultural and arts events.

This is a great initiative and one that I hope will help secure the prisons existence for decades to come.

Whatever the prisons future, the site is an important corner stone of Johor’s history. Its preservation and survival is of great importance for current and future generations to learn and appreciate its legacy and the part it played in forming what is Johor and Malaysia as we know it today.