The prison was used during the
Japanese colonial period to imprison Korean independence activists. It could originally hold around 500 inmates. It had a separate facility for women and young girls. In 1911, notable activist
Kim Ku was imprisoned here. In 1919, shortly after the
March First Movement, the number of imprisoned increased drastically. About 3,000 activists were held here. There are statues of the friends
Lee Hyo-jeong and Park Jin-hong reunited in one of the women's prison cells. Shortly before the end of the colonial period in 1945, the number of prisoners was 2,980. After liberation, the prison was used by the South Korean government, and between 1945 and 1950 the prison population tripled. When
North Korean forces
captured Seoul in late June 1950 they released over 8,500 prisoners from the prison. Those inmates were soon replaced by 7-9,000 political prisoners, of which at least 1,000 were executed by North Korean forces as they
abandoned Seoul in late September 1950. Most of the prison's post-1945 buildings and the southern section were demolished as part of the redevelopment, minimising future maintenance needs, while also erasing the recent history of the prison in favor of its colonial past. The History Hall has been criticised for focussing almost exclusively on the colonial period, while the prison's use in the postcolonial and democratization period is largely ignored. ==Notable prisoners==