Son La Prison Museum stands on a wooded hill rising over the town of Son La to the west of the Nam La River. It is an infamous prison dating from colonial times. A faded sign bearing the French word ˉP?nitencierˇ still hangs above the menacing arched entrance. Son La was chosen by the French as the site for this former high security prison because of the townˇs isolation, cold weather and unhealthy climate. It was intended as a place not just of incarceration, but also of punishment, and it soon earned Son La a reputation among nationalists and revolutionaries as ˉVietnamˇs Siberiaˇ.
The prison also functioned as a clandestine revolutionary academy, and the list of political prisoners held here at one time or another includes such communist luminaries as Truong Chinh and Le Duan, both of whom would later serve as General Secretaries of the Vietnamese Communist Party.
The French bombed and partially destroyed the prison in 1952 during an attempt to expel Viet Minh forces that had seized Son La, but enough survives or has been rebuilt to show that it was a truly dreadful place. Recalcitrant prisoners were tightly shackled and confined in windowless punishment cells. Deaths from malaria and other infections were high, while the prison guillotine saw frequent use.