Changi Prison Changi Prison ( Chinese : 樟宜监狱 ; Malay : Penjara Changi ; Tamil : சாங்கி சிறைச்சாலை ) is a prison located in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore . History . First prison and POW camp . Changi Prison was constructed by the British administration of the Straits Settlements as a civilian prison , in 1936 . During World War II , following the Fall of Singapore in February 1942 , the Japanese military detained about 3 , 000 civilians in Changi Prison , which was built to house only 600 prisoners . The Japanese used the British Army ' s Selarang Barracks , near the prison , as a prisoner of war camp , holding some 50 , 000 Allied — predominantly British and Australian — soldiers and since 1943 some Dutch civilians brought over by the Japanese from the islands in the then Dutch East Indies now Indonesia . Although POWs were rarely , if ever , held in the civilian prison , the name Changi became synonymous in the UK , Australia , The Netherlands and elsewhere with the POW camp . About 850 POWs died during their internment in Changi during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore , a relatively low rate compared to the overall death rate of 27 % for POWs in Japanese camps . However , many more prisoners died after being transferred from Changi to various labour camp s outside Singapore , including the Burma Railway and the Sandakan airfield . Allied POWs , mainly Australians , built a chapel at the prison in 1944 using simple tools and found materials . British airman Stanley Warren painted a series of murals at the chapel . Another British POW , Sgt . Harry Stodgen built a Christian cross out of a used artillery shell . After the war , the chapel was dismantled and shipped to Australia , while the cross was sent to the UK . The chapel was reconstructed in 1988 , and is now located at the Royal Military College Duntroon , Canberra . After the war , the prison was briefly used to hold Japanese and other soldiers who were held on suspicion of having committed war crimes . British soldiers were stationed there as prison guards . Kempeitai The prison also contained the headquarters of the Kempeitai , the Japanese secret police who tortured prisoners at Changi during the war as they thought that the prisoners were spies . Second prison . In 2000 , the prison was demolished and its inmates were relocated to a new consolidated prison complex in a neighbouring site . In view of its historical significance , the Preservation of Monuments Board worked with the Singapore Prison Service and the Urban Redevelopment Authority to allow the front gates of the old prison to be preserved and moved to the new prison . In 1994 Changi Women ’ s Prison and Drug Rehabilitation Centre was opened . Presently , the new Changi Prison houses the most serious criminal offenders in the country , including criminal offenders who are serving long sentences and those who have been sentenced to death . It serves as the detention site for death row inmates at Changi , before they are executed by hanging , traditionally on a Friday morning . Changi Prison is also one of the main places ( though not the only one ) where judicial corporal punishment by caning is carried out . Caning sessions at Changi are held twice per week . A former employee of the prison has been quoted as saying : " They are flogging more and more these days . Before they were doing maybe 60 on Tuesdays and Fridays , now they ' re doing a hundred " . Changi Chapel and Museum . In 1988 , Singapore built a replica chapel ( which was built by the POWs ) and museum next to the Changi Prison . When Changi Prison was expanded in 2001 , the chapel and museum was relocated to a new site 1 km away and the Changi chapel and museum was officially established on 15 February 2001 .