Johor Bahru Prison was designed by
Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, who had visited prisons in
Shanghai and
Osaka to study the physical conditions and designs of prisons in those cities. The building contract was awarded to
Wong Ah Fook, a prominent Chinese building contractor, on 16 April 1882. After it was built in 1883, the prison originally occupied an area of with a capacity of 200 inmates. At the time, there were only two cell blocks, two training workshops, a kitchen, a toilet block, a clinic and an administrative office. The prison housed criminals and dissenters, including those who had rebelled against the
British colonial government. During the
Japanese occupation of Malaya from 1941 to 1945, the prison served as a bunker for
Imperial Japanese Army troops led by General
Yamashita Tomoyuki. According to former prison staff, the well in the prison was used as an execution site by the Japanese. Over the years, the prison expanded to accommodate 1,500 inmates. The number of cell blocks increased from two to ten and the number of training workshops increased from one to five. Additional facilities, including a visiting area, a counselling clinic, a welfare officer's room and a
surau, were built, bringing the total land area occupied by the prison to , which was enclosed by a high wall. The surrounding area was also developed to include living quarters for prison staff. During this time,
judicial corporal punishment, in the form of
whipping with a
rotan, was administered at the prison on Mondays and Thursdays. Living conditions gradually worsened because the prison became too overcrowded – to the point where seven or eight inmates were sharing a cell originally designed for only three. On 30 August 2005, the prison relocated its inmates to Simpang Renggam Prison in
Kluang. ==Post-2005 uses==