Pulau Senang is an 81.7-hectare coral island in the Republic of Singapore, about 13 kilometres off the southern coast of Singapore Island. Along with Pulau Pawai and Pulau Sudong, it is used as a military training area for live-fire exercises. Pulau Senang is best known in the history of Singapore as a penal settlement experiment that failed after only three years, when a riot against the guards broke out in 1963, killing three officers.EtymologyPulau Senang is Malay for "island of ease".HistoryPulau Senang was a penal experiment where prisoners were allowed to roam freely on the island. It was thought that detainees could be reformed through manual labour.The settlement started on 18 May 1960, when 50 detainees arrived with Superintendent Daniel Dutton. Over the next three years, the number of detainees rose to 320, and they transformed the island into an attractive settlement.