Vellore Central Prison

Vellore Central Prison (Set up in 1830) is a prison in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.

It is the largest Jail in the dist. Convicts sentenced to imprisonment are confined in the jail from various districts of the Presidency as well as from Burma. Many prisoners sentenced to transpiration by the courts of this Presidency are retained when considered physically unfit for deportation to Andaman. The expenditure in the jail is recovered by the value of the convict labour.

The chief industry carried out in the jail is weaving. A great variety of clothes of various patterns as well as table clothes, gunnies, choir mats, carpets etc are woven. Central jail is famous for its carpets. The manufacture was first taught to the convicts by a carpet weaver of Ellore. The fabrics are excellently woven and find ready sale in England. Carpentry, shoe making, iron and brass work and tent making are also carried on and the prison is well worth a visit. By extreme hard work and good conduct, convicts may earn a remission not exceeding 1/6th of the total period of imprisonment awarded them.

There is a small sub jail attached to the central prison to accommodate the remand and under-trail prisoners of this dist. They will be sent to the concerned courts on the dates under Police Escorts

Famous people who were imprisoned here include
* Vikrama Raja Singa, last Tamil ruler of Kandy, Sri Lanka
* C. Rajagopalachari, Last Governor-General of India
* V. V. Giri, President of India
* R. Venkataraman, President of India, imprisoned in 1941 for his role in India's freedom struggle
* C. N. Annadurai, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, imprisoned in 1962
* K. Kamaraj, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
* Vinoba Bhave
* Jayendra Saraswathi, Shankaracharya of Kanchi, under custody in 2004 under charges of murder
* Murugan, sentenced to death for assassinating Rajiv Gandhi