The penal colony of Cayenne (Bagne de Cayenne), widely known as Devil's Island (Île du Diable), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years from 1852 to 1952, and was officially closed in 1953 on the Islands of Salvation in French Guiana.

Starting in 1852, Devil's Island received prisoners from all corners of the Second French Empire. It was infamous for the cruel treatment of the staff towards prisoners, as well as for the tropical climate and diseases that contributed to a high mortality rate, which reached 75%, and in 1953 it was finally closed.

Devil's Island was also notorious for being used as a place of exile for French political prisoners, the most famous of whom was Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was accused of spying for Germany. The Dreyfus affair was a scandal that lasted several years in France at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, exposing anti-Semitism and corruption in the French armed forces.

The penal colony consisted of several colonies, both on the mainland and on the coastal islands of Salvation. The Royal Island was the admission center for the entire population of the penal colony; they were kept under conditions of moderate freedom due to the difficulties of escaping from the island. Saint Joseph Island was a place of seclusion, where prisoners were sent for punishment of solitary confinement in silence and darkness for attempted escape or offenses committed in the penal colony. Devil's Island was intended for political prisoners.

In addition to the prisons on each of the three islands of the Salut Islands group, the French built three adjacent prison facilities on the mainland of South America: immediately behind the strait in Kourou, 50 kilometers (30 miles) eastward in Cayenne (which later became the capital of French Guiana) and in Saint-Laurent, 160 km (100 miles) westward.

By the beginning of the 19th century, France's urban population had grown from less than six million to more than 16 million, and crime was not lagging behind. Recidivism, which amounted to 75%, became a serious problem; released and unemployed prisoners arrived in cities in search of means of subsistence.

In the 1840s, the state created internal agricultural correctional colonies to receive prisoners, thus removing them from the urban environment and giving them work. Prisoners were usually sentenced to double punishment, according to which they had to work as employees in the correctional colony for an additional period equal to their initial term of imprisonment upon completion of their sentence.

After his state coup in 1851, Emperor Napoleon III ordered the prisons to be permanently closed and the civil law convicts to be transferred abroad to colonies. Disputes about where the convicts would be sent dragged on. Algeria was excluded by the navy, as it was under the control of the French army; Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Texas in the United States were considered, but the government eventually chose its own colony, French Guiana.

Starting from 1604, France repeatedly failed to colonize French Guiana. The last attempt at colonization was made in 1763. About 75% of the 12,000 colonists who were sent there died in the first year of their stay from tropical diseases. In 1852, Napoleon called for volunteer prisoners to be sent to the new colony of Cayenne (the penal colony of Cayenne) in French Guiana; 3,000 prisoners applied. Two categories of prisoners had the right to be transported: those sentenced to double punishment under civil law, and those convicted of political crimes, such as espionage or conspiracy.

Devil's Island and the associated prisons became one of the most notorious prison systems in history. Among the prisoners were many political ones, for example, 239 republicans who opposed the coup d'état of Napoleon III in 1851, and the most hardened thieves and murderers. The overwhelming majority of the more than 80,000 prisoners sent to the Devil's Island prison system never returned to France. Many died from diseases and harsh conditions. There was virtually no medical assistance, and the region was infested with mosquitoes, which were carriers of tropical diseases. The only way out of the island prisons was by sea, teeming with sharks, and only a few prisoners managed to escape.

Prisoners who were fortunate enough to have family or friends willing to send them money had to entrust it to the prison guards for safekeeping. The guard kept a quarter of the sent amount for himself and gave the rest to the prisoner.

On May 30, 1854, France adopted a new law on exile. It required convicts to remain in French Guiana after serving their sentence for a period equal to their term of forced labor. If the initial prison term exceeded eight years, they were forced to remain residents for the rest of their lives and were provided with land for settlement. Over time, different regimes for serving sentences emerged, as convicts were categorized according to the severity of their crimes and the duration of their imprisonment or exile.

The 1885 law provided for the sending of repeat offenders for minor crimes to the prison system in French Guiana, previously intended for serious offenders and political prisoners. A limited number of convicted women were also sent to French Guiana with the intention of marrying them to released male prisoners to help in the development of the colony. As the results were unsatisfactory, the government discontinued this practice in 1907. On the island of Devil's Island, a small prison usually housed no more than 12 people.

Alfred Dreyfus in his room on Devil's Island in 1898,

The horrors of penal colonies gained notoriety during the Dreyfus Affair, when French army captain Alfred Dreyfus was unjustly convicted of treason and sent to Devil's Island on January 5, 1895. After public outcry over the conditions in the prison, the French government announced plans to close the penal colony at Cayenne. The start of World War II delayed this operation, but from 1946 to 1953, the prisons were closed one by one. The prison on Devil's Island was the last to close.

In the mid-19th century, an experiment was conducted in which 15 prostitutes were brought to Devil's Island, with the belief that they would encourage the prisoners to lead a dignified life and start families. The women were guarded by nuns. No families were formed, but the women offered sexual services to anyone who could offer them rum. Disputes arose between men, and eventually, an epidemic of syphilis broke out on the island.

During the prison's history, there were several successful escapes. One of them was the escape of Charles Derudio. After attempting to assassinate Emperor Napoleon III on January 14, 1858, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island, from where he escaped with twelve other inmates by making their way to British Guiana. Later in life, he joined the American army and survived the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Clement Duval, an anarchist, was sent to Devil's Island in 1886. Originally sentenced to death, he later received punishment in the form of lifelong hard labor. He escaped in April 1901 and settled in New York, where he remained until the end of his life. Eventually, he wrote a book about his imprisonment called 'The Rebellion'.

Francois Frean, Paul Renuchi, Raymond Voud, and Giovanni Batistoti - these four escapees from Devil's Island arrived in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands on October 18, 1936. Their boat nearly crashed on the reef, and the convicts were initially taken in as guests and treated for injuries at the municipal hospital.

In Henri Charriere's best-selling book "Papillon" (1969), he describes his successful escape from Devil's Island with his companion Sylvain. They used two bags filled with coconuts. According to Charriere, the two men jumped into the stormy sea from a cliff and drifted to the mainland for three days. Sylvain died in quicksand near the shore. There, Charriere was supposed to meet a man named Quick-Quick, who would help him complete his escape to freedom; instead, Charriere was caught again and served some time in the Bagnes of El Dorado, Venezuela. After his final release, he stayed in Venezuela. Charriere's book sparked controversy, as the French authorities disputed his imprisonment on Devil's Island and published registration records from the correctional colony that contradicted his story. According to their claims, Charriere was never in this prison and escaped from another prison on the mainland. French journalists and prison authorities also disputed other events from his book and wrote that he invented many episodes and borrowed memories and stories from other prisoners.

Rene Belbenoit, perhaps the most famous escapee from a penal colony, wrote about his experience in two popular autobiographical books: "Hell on Trial" (1940) and "Dry Guillotine: Fifteen Years Among the Living Dead" (1938). After leaving the colony with temporary permission in 1930, he eventually made his way to the Panama Canal, where he worked for almost a year. At the end of 1930, he decided to return to France to defend his freedom. However, for a prisoner from Devil's Island, returning to France was a crime. In 1931, he was sent back to French Guiana, to the prison colony. This time he was sent to Royal Island, not Devil's Island. He was placed in solitary confinement for almost a year. In 1934, he was released again, but as a released prisoner, he was not allowed to return to France, just like in 1930. Eventually, he made his way to the United States where he obtained citizenship in 1956. He died in California in 1959 at the age of 59.

According to the second memoirs of American sailor and writer William Willis ("Hell on Trial"), a few days after New Year's Day in 1938, he rented a room in New York from a French immigrant woman named Madame Carnot. Her son, Bernard Carnot, was sent to Devil's Island in 1922 for a murder he did not commit, and since then the Carnot family had moved to the United States. Out of compassion and a thirst for adventure, Willis went to the penal colony to organize Bernard Carnot's escape, which he eventually succeeded in doing. The subtitle of the book indicates that it documents "the true story of the last escape from Devil's Island." After being transported to Brazil on a supply ship, Carnot never reunited with his family, although they learned through Willis that he had gained his freedom. With the outbreak of World War II, he returned to Europe and joined the French army. It is believed that he was killed in battle shortly before the liberation of Strasbourg.

In 1938, the French government stopped sending prisoners to Devil's Island. In 1953, the prison system was completely closed. Most of the prisoners at the time were repatriated by the Salvation Army to mainland France. Some chose to stay and resettle in French Guiana.

Several films and series have been made based on books and original screenplays that take place on Devil's Island, the most famous of which is the adaptation of Henri Charrière's book "Papillon" (1969) in the American film of the same name, released in 1973, starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. In 2017, a remake of "Papillon" was released starring Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek in the lead roles. The comedy "We're No Angels" by Michael Curtiz, featuring actors Humphrey Bogart and Peter Ustinov, was also filmed on Devil's Island.

In 1965, the French government transferred responsibility for much of the islands to its newly founded Guiana Space Center. The islands are located in the trajectory of rockets launched from the center to the east, towards the sea (to geostationary orbit). The CNES space agency, together with other agencies, has restored buildings that are now classified as historical monuments.

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