Institutional History – Yunlin Second Prison, Agency of Corrections, Ministry of Justice

The predecessor of Yunlin Second Prison was the Taiwan Yunlin Detention Center, originally located at No. 42, Mingzheng Road, Huwei Township, Yunlin County. The detention center was established on July 1, 1964, at a time when no prison facilities existed in the Yunlin region. All inmates with finalized sentences were housed and managed by the center.

As the inmate population steadily increased, the Taiwan Yunlin Prison was established and began operations jointly with the detention center in January 1967. Upon completion of a new prison facility in July 1972, the two institutions began operating independently.

The detention center also managed a branch prison and a juvenile detention facility, handling inmates serving sentences of less than one year as well as juvenile detainees.

Due to aging and overcrowded infrastructure that could no longer meet the needs of a growing inmate population, the Ministry of Justice incorporated the institution into a prison facility improvement and relocation project. A new site was selected, and construction planning began. The main construction commenced in September 1996 and was completed in February 1999. Additional facilities and equipment installations were completed by June 2000.

The institution officially relocated to the current address on July 19, 2000, and was formally designated as the Taiwan Yunlin Second Prison on September 1, 2000, with an approved capacity of 1,552 inmates. It continued to operate jointly with the Yunlin Detention Center and the Yunlin Juvenile Detention Center.

Starting in November 2001, the prison was designated to conduct intake and assessment operations for inmates in the central region, and on January 1, 2002, it became the nation’s first specialized intake and assessment prison. However, due to overcrowding, insufficient manpower, and limited space, this responsibility was officially discontinued on December 1, 2010, and assessment duties reverted to individual prisons.

Following the establishment of the Agency of Corrections under the Ministry of Justice on January 1, 2011, the institution was officially renamed Yunlin Second Prison, Agency of Corrections, Ministry of Justice.

The prison’s new (expanded) construction project was approved by the Executive Yuan on August 9, 2017. The project began on October 4, 2018, and was completed on February 24, 2022. According to official notification from the Ministry of Justice, the approved inmate capacity was increased to 3,108 starting from April 6, 2022.