Pudu Prison is a classic example of some of the earliest colonial prisons. If you've been
out exploring Kuala Lumpur, you might notice the fading and peeling murals depicting scenes of nature,
on the wall circling the prison. The wall murals of tropical scenes painted by the prisoners took
them over a year to paint using 2000 liters of paint! The murals entitled the inmates to won a place in the Guinness Book of Records, for painting the world's longest mural along the prison's walls.
Pudu Prison Kuala Lumpur was built in 1895 and was used to house criminals and as a location for administering corporal punishment through rattan caning. The prison is shaped like a butterfly or an X with three levels and 240 cells. Pudu Prison was designed to house 600 inmates initially but with additional cells, its capacity was increased to 2,000.
Dark Execution Chamber
The Pudu Prison main entrance was situated in a two-storied building. The Administrative Offices was on the ground floor and on the top floor, six cells for European and Eurasian prisoners and two small rooms for storage of prison records. The female ward of the prison and the prison kitchen were separate areas on each side of the Administrative Block and leading from the main section of the prison were four three-storied wings. The prison hospital was close by, but separate from the main building.
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Penjara = Prison
Jenayah = Crime
Hukum = Punish
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The Pudu Prison was closed for several years following the 1986 execution of Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, both Australian nationals, for the drug trafficking of heroin. In early 2004, it was reopened just for a short time as a museum. Those who have visited the Pudu Prison described the cells as totally horrific. Each cell is equipped with a window only the size of a shoebox!
The View of Pudu Prison from a Monorail
Visitors to the dark execution chamber, could hear the the grim sounds of a man's last moments being played on tape. The trap-door crashes open with a deafening roar, the noose is silhouetted starkly against the walls of the execution chamber. Visitors also could enter the flogging chamber to watch a detailed graphic video of a prisoner being caned!
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Pudu Prison Kuala Lumpur was temporarily re-opened as an Alcatraz-style museum before being shut for good to enable the Urban Development Authority Holdings Bhd, which reportedly bought the 7.65ha site for RMl00 million from the Government, to turn it into a commercial area. Following appeals from enforcement agencies such as the police and City Hall and the then sluggish property market, LJDA had agreed to stall its development plans while awaiting the viability study on the prison as a temporary detention centre for drug addicts.
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The prison's building is no longer used as a prison nor as a museum. The building is now used as a day-holding facility for prisoners attending court hearings and a temporary detention centre for drug addicts.
The prison area is now a ghastly tourist attraction where about 180 Malaysian murderers, rapists, robbers and drug traffickers met their end. You can have a clear view inside the Pudu Prison from the monorail train between Imbi and Hang Tuah stations. Just see for yourself at how rundown the place is!
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