A prison official confirmed to the Daily Eleven on December 17 that the rumours spread around in social media about Insein prison riot are false.

Rumours spread on Facebook that a riot occurred within Insein prison and was quelled at 7 pm, with the cause of the prison riot still unknown.

He said a drunken inmate went obstreperous in the evening of December 16 after the prison had shut down for the day. The prison officials admonished the inmate and he accepted it.  No one was injured at all.

While Insein is one of the state level prison in Myanmar and that can house up to 5,000 inmates, there are 6,134 detainees and 6,024 inmates in the prison by August 15 2017. It is 7,158 more prisoners than the maximum capacity of the prison. Both international and domestic organizations have called for a systematic restructuring of the penal system in order to reduce the numbers of prisoners which would mean healthier living conditions as well as saving taxpayers money.