The Cellular Jail at Port Blair, when completed in 1910, included 698 cells designed for solitary confinement; each cell measured 4.5 by 2.7 m with a single ventilation window 3 m above the floor.

The Indians imprisoned here referred to the island and its prison as Kala Pani ("black water"), named for ''kala pani'', the Hindu proscription against travelling across the open sea. Incarceration on the Andamans thus threatened prisoners with the loss of their caste,