A Hellish 19th Century Penal Colony
Devil's Island, was a French penal colony that operated in the 19th and 20th century in the Salvation Islands of French Guiana. It’s the world’s most notorious prison.
Devil's Island, French Guiana Monday, March 6, 2017
WHAT IS DEVIL’S ISLAND
Devils Island in French Guiana, is tropical slice of paradise with a very dark history. It was originally colonized by the French, and turned into a large, isolated large penal colony which became a jungle hellhole. With very rough waters to navigate, it is synonymous with the fear of never being allowed to get off the island. It was also one of the most brutal and long lasting in the world, operating from the late 1800s until 1952.
Devils Island was home to many of France's worst criminals, repeat offenders, political and military prisoners. Prisoners were brought to the island by boats and separated into groups based on the type of crime they were sentenced for. Its name was created to reflect the situation in which prisoners found themselves on this island. The remote location at the open sea proved to be very effective for preventing prisoners to escape from this nightmare island. Death was the only escape.
The surrounding sea was infested with sharks, the rivers with piranha. The jungle teemed with ants and alligators. Despite the virtual impossibility to escape, there were two successful escape attempts. First was conducted by Clement Duval, a French anarchist that escaped the island in April 1901. The second escape attempt received much more publicity. Henri Charriere and Sylvain managed to escape the island, and their exploits were described in the book and movie adaptation called "Papillion".
DARK PAST
Forty percent of the new arrivals to the colony perished within the first year. Of the 80,000 or so who were transported during the colony's 94-year existence, few made it back to France. Most were killed by forced labor, poor diet and lack of protection from diseases rampant in the unfamiliar tropical environment. Many died during escape attempts, savaged by wild animals, ravaged by scurvy, or in the case of sea-bound escapees, drowned or were eaten by sharks that infest the coastal waters.
Today, it is a macabre tourist attraction and the terrain is completely overgrown with lush palms and other indigenous flora and fauna. For tourists, it is often hard to believe that there was once stood the most brutal penal system in the world when one sees such a serene and beautiful place.
Along the hospital is a lighthouse tower used for sending messages to another lighthouse.
ATTTRACTIONS
One can walk and see the sprawl of decaying jail buildings and ancient cell blocks. One of the most ominous attraction on the prison island is the restored and renovated chapel. The ruins of the site hospital stands as well as the ironically luxurious looking home for the Director of the Prison. The only bars on this island are the ones that used to hold prisoners at bay in solitary confinement. The thick walls on the Crimson Barracks is still intact. The iron gates were closed but could be pulled open. This building was notorious for the number of prisoner -on-prisoner killings that had taken place. Rusting barres de justice, the steel poles that ran through the manacles securing the prisoners by the ankles to their beds, lay around. The atmosphere of claustrophobic isolation was intense, even if the doors had all long been removed.
Out in the open is the site of the island's guillotine. The four brick foundation blocks were still in place. It is here, where countless men had been beheaded. Executions were assisted by trusted convicts. The heads were later preserved in jars of alcohol and sent back to Paris as proof that execution had been carried out.
A few feet away is the prison buildings with a foot-high letters carved in stone with "Reclusion" (Imprisonment). The cells where prisoners spent years in isolation had no ceilings, only iron grid. Here, souls were extinguished, literally imprisoned to death, banished from the edge of the world!
Other quarters where political prisoners were held was self contained with a stone bed. They are now draped in vines and cobwebs.
It is not difficult to imagine the men in red and white striped pyjamas who died in Devils Island. Thin-lipped and hollowed-eyed ghosts were everywhere in the crumbling ruins. Although time and foliage have softened their imposing features, everything is decayed and haunted. Today, there are few, if any sharks around; we only saw turtles at the tender port.