Pulau Senang

By Cornelius-Takahama, Vernon written on 1999-03-09
National Library Board Singapore

Comments on article: InfopediaTalk

Pulau Senang, island, is located 15 miles south of Singapore, in shark-infested waters. In 1960, the island was used in a penal reform experiment. Riots resulted in the death of the Prison Officer Daniel Stanley Dutton (nicknamed 'The Laughing Tiger') and three of his assistants. It is one of three islands used for live-firing exercises today.

The 227-acre island was no more than a tree-and-scrub-covered rock in the China Sea with reasonably fertile soil and two or three fresh-water wells. It became the location of a penal reform experiment in June 1960 with plans to have a prison system which provided an effective rehabilitation service. Prison Officer Dutton was in-charge of the programme, with 50 prisoners under his supervision. The hardcore prisoners helped build the penal rehabilitation settlement. In the bold experiment to transform Pulau Senang into a gaol without bars, each prisoner came with food rations, two blankets and a few tools to hack their way through the undergrowth in the initial attempts to develop the island. One sunny afternoon, on 12 July 1963, a sizeable section of the 316 detainees rioted and killed Prison Officer Dutton and three of his assistants. They wanted the island they built, destroyed. A total of 64 detainees were accused of murder and rioting. The trial, took 5 months, ended with 18 men found guilty of murder and hanged in Changi Jail on the morning of 29 October 1965. Another 29 men found guilty of rioting, and the rest were acquitted. Pulau Senang was declared out of bounds for the next 5 years and was later used by the Singapore Armed Forces for military exercises. Today Pulau Senang is one of three islands used for military 'live-firing' exercises.

Variant Names
Malay Names: In Malay, Pulau Senang means "Isle of Ease". Its old spelling was Pulo Sinang
Other Names: In colonial times, the island was called Barn Island.



Author
Vernon Cornelius-Takahama, 2001



References
Josey, A. (1980). Pulau Senang: The experiment that failed (pp. 1, 4, 50, 52, 111-113). Singapore: Times Books International.
(Call no.: RSING 365.95957 JOS)

Singapore chronicles (p.186). (1995). Hong Kong: Illustrated Magazine Pub.
(Call no.: SING 959.57 SIN)

The information in this article is valid as at 2001 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.



Subject
Geography>>Geographical Areas and Countries>>Singapore Offshore Islands
Islands--Singapore
Law and government>>National development>>Urban development



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