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Pulau Senang prison riots
The Pulau Senang riots was a case of armed rioting and murder that happened at the Singaporean island of Pulau Senang, where a reformative prison settlement was operated by the government of Singapore to imprison and rehabilitate secret society members, as well as to avoid prison overcrowding at Changi Prison. The settlement first opened in 1960, and had seen bouts of success in reforming many gang members and allowing them to rejoin society.
On 12 July 1963, about 70 to 90 out of the island prison's 300 detainees staged an uprising, resulting in a riot that devastated the whole settlement and killed four prison officers - consisting of Prisons Superintendent Daniel Stanley Dutton, and three of Dutton's assistants Chok Kok Hong (simplified Chinese: 植国雄; traditional Chinese: 植國雄; Jyutping: Zik6 Gwok3 Hung4), Tan Kok Hian (simplified Chinese: 陈国贤; traditional Chinese: 陳國賢; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Kok-hiân) and Arumugam Veerasingham. Several others, including prison officers and some of the detainees who refused to join the riot, were also injured, but later survived. At the end of the riots, police reinforcements and the Marine Police arrived at Pulau Senang to arrest the rioters, with 71 of them being charged with murder.
In an unprecedented 64-day trial ever conducted in the history of both Malaysia and Singapore, 59 rioters were brought to trial for four charges of murder, with both a special jury of seven and the veteran judge Murray Buttrose set to hear the case. Eventually, eighteen of the defendants, including the ringleader Tan Kheng Ann (alias Robert Black; simplified Chinese: 陈庆安; traditional Chinese: 陳慶安; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Khèng-an) were sentenced to hang for the murders while another 29 rioters were jailed between two and three years for both rioting and aggravated rioting with deadly weapons, and the remaining twelve defendants were acquitted of all charges.
In 1960, an experimental-type offshore penal colony was established on Pulau Senang by the Singapore government, after the proposal was made by former political prisoner and future president Devan Nair. On the island, the secret society members were allowed to roam freely and were put to manual labour, as part of a rehabilitation programme to allow them to rejoin society. The settlement was established as a countermeasure to resolve the issue of prison overcrowding, as attributed to the large number of suspected gang members being arrested and detained without trial per the government's tough crackdown on secret societies in Singapore.
The prison-settlement was started on 18 May 1960, when about 50 detainees, sent from Changi Prison, arrived with Irish-born Prisons Superintendent Daniel Stanley Dutton, the appointed chief of the penal settlement; another 20 officers and attendants were appointed to the island. Over the next three years, the number of detainees from the mainland rose to 320 and together they transformed the island into an attractive settlement, and there were bouts of success from the results. By September 1962, about 200 offenders had been deemed sufficiently rehabilitated and suitable to return to society.
Dutton was known to be a largely benevolent and lenient leader of the island prison, as he believed that not all humans are born evil and believed that reformation is possible for them through hard work. He also did not allow guards to carry arms as part of the need to build trust between the guards and inmates. However, despite such an outlook, he was also a strict enforcer of discipline and would not tolerate any rule-breaking or defiance of orders from any inmates, and often harshly penalized those detainees who broke the rules. Hence, while he was held in high regard by many detainees and guards, he also earned an unfavourable opinion and dislike from others. Also, the abuse of detainees by some of the prison wardens add to the displeasure the detainees harboured against the authorities who operated the Pulau Senang settlement.
Out of the detainees, Dutton shared the closest bond with Tan Kheng Ann, a high-ranking member of the underworld and one of the few gang members who was English-educated. Tan, also known as Robert Black or Ang Chuar (meaning "Red Snake" in Hokkien and so-named due to his birth in 1941, the year of the Snake), was said to be a charismatic man who mixed well with others and deeply trusted by Dutton. However, when the riots happened on 12 July 1963, Tan was ironically the ringleader who led more than 70 detainees to kill Dutton and cause a revolt.
On the afternoon of 12 July 1963, after lunchtime, the guards escorted the 320 detainees to their workplace, where they would carry out their work as usual according to their routine.
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Pulau Senang prison riots
The Pulau Senang riots was a case of armed rioting and murder that happened at the Singaporean island of Pulau Senang, where a reformative prison settlement was operated by the government of Singapore to imprison and rehabilitate secret society members, as well as to avoid prison overcrowding at Changi Prison. The settlement first opened in 1960, and had seen bouts of success in reforming many gang members and allowing them to rejoin society.
On 12 July 1963, about 70 to 90 out of the island prison's 300 detainees staged an uprising, resulting in a riot that devastated the whole settlement and killed four prison officers - consisting of Prisons Superintendent Daniel Stanley Dutton, and three of Dutton's assistants Chok Kok Hong (simplified Chinese: 植国雄; traditional Chinese: 植國雄; Jyutping: Zik6 Gwok3 Hung4), Tan Kok Hian (simplified Chinese: 陈国贤; traditional Chinese: 陳國賢; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Kok-hiân) and Arumugam Veerasingham. Several others, including prison officers and some of the detainees who refused to join the riot, were also injured, but later survived. At the end of the riots, police reinforcements and the Marine Police arrived at Pulau Senang to arrest the rioters, with 71 of them being charged with murder.
In an unprecedented 64-day trial ever conducted in the history of both Malaysia and Singapore, 59 rioters were brought to trial for four charges of murder, with both a special jury of seven and the veteran judge Murray Buttrose set to hear the case. Eventually, eighteen of the defendants, including the ringleader Tan Kheng Ann (alias Robert Black; simplified Chinese: 陈庆安; traditional Chinese: 陳慶安; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Khèng-an) were sentenced to hang for the murders while another 29 rioters were jailed between two and three years for both rioting and aggravated rioting with deadly weapons, and the remaining twelve defendants were acquitted of all charges.
In 1960, an experimental-type offshore penal colony was established on Pulau Senang by the Singapore government, after the proposal was made by former political prisoner and future president Devan Nair. On the island, the secret society members were allowed to roam freely and were put to manual labour, as part of a rehabilitation programme to allow them to rejoin society. The settlement was established as a countermeasure to resolve the issue of prison overcrowding, as attributed to the large number of suspected gang members being arrested and detained without trial per the government's tough crackdown on secret societies in Singapore.
The prison-settlement was started on 18 May 1960, when about 50 detainees, sent from Changi Prison, arrived with Irish-born Prisons Superintendent Daniel Stanley Dutton, the appointed chief of the penal settlement; another 20 officers and attendants were appointed to the island. Over the next three years, the number of detainees from the mainland rose to 320 and together they transformed the island into an attractive settlement, and there were bouts of success from the results. By September 1962, about 200 offenders had been deemed sufficiently rehabilitated and suitable to return to society.
Dutton was known to be a largely benevolent and lenient leader of the island prison, as he believed that not all humans are born evil and believed that reformation is possible for them through hard work. He also did not allow guards to carry arms as part of the need to build trust between the guards and inmates. However, despite such an outlook, he was also a strict enforcer of discipline and would not tolerate any rule-breaking or defiance of orders from any inmates, and often harshly penalized those detainees who broke the rules. Hence, while he was held in high regard by many detainees and guards, he also earned an unfavourable opinion and dislike from others. Also, the abuse of detainees by some of the prison wardens add to the displeasure the detainees harboured against the authorities who operated the Pulau Senang settlement.
Out of the detainees, Dutton shared the closest bond with Tan Kheng Ann, a high-ranking member of the underworld and one of the few gang members who was English-educated. Tan, also known as Robert Black or Ang Chuar (meaning "Red Snake" in Hokkien and so-named due to his birth in 1941, the year of the Snake), was said to be a charismatic man who mixed well with others and deeply trusted by Dutton. However, when the riots happened on 12 July 1963, Tan was ironically the ringleader who led more than 70 detainees to kill Dutton and cause a revolt.
On the afternoon of 12 July 1963, after lunchtime, the guards escorted the 320 detainees to their workplace, where they would carry out their work as usual according to their routine.
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