Commentary
S'pore Prison Service's 75-year history a saga of wartime horrors and peacetime rehabilitation
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Artefacts on display at the Changi Chapel and Museum. The original Changi Prison was where thousands of Allied prisoners of war were detained when Singapore fell to the Japanese army in 1942. After the Japanese surrender of 1945, the roles were reversed and several hundred Japanese soldiers became prisoners there instead.
ST FILE PHOTO
The 75-year history of the Singapore Prison Service is more of a saga than a mere logbook of jails, jailbirds and jail craft, given its record of pre-1946 wartime horrors and the peacetime punishment and rehabilitation that followed.
The 75th anniversary is an apt time, perhaps, to recall some of its finest hours as the department renews its efforts in the face of evolving challenges, different in form but similar in substance to its past.
