Prisoners were commonly sentenced under doublage by which, on completion of their sentence, they were required to work as employees at the penal colony for an additional period equal to their original sentence. In the 1840s, the state set up internal agricultural penal colonies as a place to receive prisoners, thereby removing them from urban environments and giving them work. Recidivism of up to 75% had become a major problem released and unemployed prisoners entered cities to seek a way to live. Imprisonment was considered a way to remove offenders from society. Prison reform changed the previous reliance on corporal punishment through hard labor, to imprisonment with a goal of punishment and deterrence. In 1832 legislation was passed mandating the state's provision of basic necessities to prisoners. Other prisoners were housed in prisons onshore, but conditions were reportedly so bad that many prisoners would beg to be transferred to the hulks.īy the early 19th century, the French urban population had increased from under six million to over 16 million, and crime kept pace. They were required to work 12 hours a day in the docks, earning 10–15 centimes, which they could spend on food and wine. Prisoners relied on charity or their families for food, bedding and clothing. The prisoners were transferred to live on the adjacent pontoons. Following the decommissioning of the Mediterranean galley fleet in 1666, the French detained the majority of prisoners in pairs, held in chains aboard galley hulks ( bagnes) moored in French harbours, until the bagnes rotted and sank. Given the harsh conditions, this was virtually a death sentence. Prisoners convicted of felonies in the 17th and 18th centuries were sentenced to serve as oarsmen in the French Mediterranean galley fleet.

In addition to the prisons on each of the three islands in the Salvation Islands group, the French constructed three related prison facilities on the South American mainland: just across the straits at Kourou, 50 kilometres (30 mi) east in Cayenne (which later became the capital of French Guiana), and St. Laurent, 160 km (100 mi) to the west.Įarly penal system A prison hulk in Toulon harbour. In the 19th century the most famous such prisoner was Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Devil's Island was for political prisoners. Saint-Joseph Island was the Reclusion, where inmates were sent to be punished by solitary confinement in silence and darkness, for attempted escapes or offences committed in the penal colony. Île Royale was the reception centre for the general population of the penal colony they were housed in moderate freedom due to the difficulty of escape from the island. The prison system encompassed several locations, both on the mainland and in the off-shore Salvation Islands. The Dreyfus affair was a scandal extending for several years in late 19th and early 20th century France, exposing antisemitism and corruption in the French military. ĭevil's Island was also notorious for being used for the exile of French political prisoners, with the most famous being Captain Alfred Dreyfus, accused of spying for Germany. The prison system had a death rate of 75 per cent at its worst, and was finally closed down in 1953. It was notorious both for the staff's harsh treatment of detainees and the tropical climate and diseases that contributed to high mortality. Opened in 1852, the Devil's Island system received convicts from the Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni, who had been deported from all parts of the Second French Empire. The penal colony of Cayenne ( French: Bagne de Cayenne), commonly known as Devil's Island ( Île du Diable), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953, in the Salvation Islands of French Guiana.

The Dreyfus Tower on the Pointe des Roches, Kourou

Alfred dreyfus movie