6 - The Colonial Prison

Summary

Chapter 6 discusses the two most notorious institutions in wartime Singapore, the Changi and Outram Road prisons, with key focus on civilian internment at Changi. It describes the colonial origins of penal institutions and the erection of Changi Prison as the first modern (reinforced-concrete) penal complex. The prison’s inversion to intern colonial residents, as an act of forced removal and dispossession of once-privileged colonial civilians, is discussed in terms of “subalternization,” a recurring theme in subsequent chapters. The chapter focuses specifically on the experiences of incarcerated colonial women, children and elders, as different to those of imprisoned service personnel. It concludes with their relocation to Sime Road Camp.