Inside Devil’s Island where 70,000 murderers and rapists were chained up in tiny hellhole cells – and only a handful made it out alive
40 per cent of prisoners died in their first year, and only two escaped in nearly a century
WELCOME to Hell on earth - a network of serene Caribbean islands that were once home to the world's most feared prison.
The French penal colony known on Devil’s Island was located off the coast of French Guiana and housed over 70,000 convicts over 100 years - including murderers, rapists and political prisoners.
Doomed to a torturous existence, most never made it off the island. It’s estimated that 40 per cent died in the first year, and only 5,000 survived to see their release date.
Even the trip to the island was treacherous, and many didn’t make it off the boat. Some were murdered during fights inside the cages where they were locked up during the journey.
Prisoners who refused to obey orders were tortured with sulfer and steam.
They worked from 6am to 6pm including some hard labour such as building structures including their own jailhouses, and a hospital.
They lived in tiny, filthy cells with the most dangerous flung inside rooms just 1.8x2m wide.
During the day the prisoners moved around in chains and each night their legs were shackled to a long iron rod. Suffering starvation, some became walking skeletons. Many were just waiting to die.
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Those who did live until their day of release were forced to remain in French Guiana and were awarded land. The population later boomed when the government started sending over those with repeated small offences to the penal colony.
In an intriguing twist, at one point it became home to over 100,000 people and its residents had a very high standard of living thanks to subsidiaries.
The abandoned island was renovated in the 1980s, though many of the original structures remain, and it has become something of a tourist attraction.
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