St John’s Island
St John’s Island, southern island, famous for having been a
penal settlement but now a holiday resort.
St John’s Island has a significant history tied to Singapore.
Sir Stamford Raffles, sailing on the Indiana actually anchored off
this island on 28 February 1819 before taking a small ketch to get
to the shores of Singapore the next day. By February 1823, the
island had the signal flagstaff moved there from Pulau Tambakul
(Goa Island, then later renamed Peak Island). When hordes of
immigrants began making their way to Singapore bringing not only
wealth but sicknesses, St John’s Island was the station for the
“report boat” for the Marine Department (1823) to bring news of
immigrants until the cholera epidemic of 1873 which saw 357 deaths
prompted the Master Attendant, Henry Ellis to call for a lazaretto
to be built at St John’s. The plans included a floating police
station, a hospital at St John’s and a quarantine burial-ground
sited at Peak Island. The lazaretto was completed in November 1874
at St John’s, just in time it seems, to attend to more than 1,300
cholera-infected Chinese coolies brought in by the S. S. Milton.
Victims of beri-beri were also brought into St John’s lazaretto
beginning in 1901. Such was the fame of St John’s lazaretto, that
by 1930, she had gained world recognition as a quarantine centre
screening Asian immigrants and pilgrims returning from Mecca.
When the mass immigration was closed, the island was used to
house detained political prisoners and ringleaders of secret
societies. Later the holding areas were converted into a drug
rehabilitation centre and in 1975, it became a holiday campsite
popular with schools and students.
Currently, St John’s is going through another major change. At
least 1/3 of the island on the eastern end has been acquired by the
Prisons’ Department for the setting up of a Prison Detention Centre
for illegal immigrants and drug addicts. The western end, on the
other hand, has been given a facelift with the construction of the
S$30 million Marine Aquaculture Centre where the marine research
facilities would take another 1/3 of the island. The work on this,
the first of Southeast Asia’s deep-sea fish farm, which began in
April 1997 is expected to finish in April 2000.
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_228_2005-01…
Inmate Story’s Introduction
Dear readers, my name is Jer, known as ’’Áh Bee’’ during my days
in prison. I am the founder of Singapore Prison Stories (SPS). I am
an ex-convict who has served my jail term from July 2011 to August
2011. I was imprisoned in CPC (Changi Prison
Complex) for a month, and served the remaining of my sentence under
PPP (Home Detention Program). Throughout my
‘short’ two months of incarceration and the home detention program,
I have come across and met a number of ex-convicts who have
committed all types of offences. They shared with me their
backgrounds and personal stories, all of which have taught me so
much, and made me better understand and appreciate the meaning of
life itself.
I sincerely hope that my life story here can actually help out
any of you readers or the people around you. Think twice before you
commit a crime and always be prepared to face the consequences –
jail time, caning, a fine, and even the social stigma when you are
released. Committing a crime is always never a necessity, but an
option. You have the power to choose.
http://www.prisonstories.webs.com/
