Simon Soon
When completed in 1849, the gaol was the largest building complex in George Town apart from the Cantonment, and the most profitable institution for the city's urban development. It provided a source of free labour for the city's infrastructural development. Although the cellular prison had been introduced to Europe by 1840s, the jails in the colonies continued to be divided into yards and wards within a walled enclosure.
A gangway seven to eight feet wide was created across the length of each ward with sleeping platforms raised on either side of it. The hospital, women's ward, bathing facilities and cooking places for different caste groups were all accommodated within the prison enclosure Whereas other ethnic communities were dispersed across Penang's grids of streets, prison walls contained the penal population, identifying them as a collective. This helped foster the inter-ethnic interactions that would have contributed to the participation of other ethnic communities in the Muharram celebrations.
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