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.

It was notorious both for the staff's harsh treatment of detainees and the tropical climate and diseases that contributed to high mortality, with a death rate of 75 percent at its worst.

[1] Devil's Island was also notorious for being used for the exile of French political prisoners, with the most famous being Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who had been accused of spying for Germany.

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.

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.

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.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, prisoners convicted of felonies in the Kingdom of France were sentenced to serve as galley slaves in the French Navy's Levant Fleet.

Once a hulk sank, its prisoners, who relied on charity or their families for food, bedding and clothing, were transferred to live on adjacent pontoons.

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.

Following his coup in 1851, Emperor Napoleon III ordered that the hulks be permanently closed and that civil law convicts be transferred overseas to colonies.

The main part of the penal colony was a labour camp that stretched along the border with Dutch Guiana (present-day Suriname).

If the original sentence exceeded eight years, they were forced to stay as residents for the remainder of their lives and were given land on which to settle.

A limited number of convicted women were also sent to French Guiana, with the intent that they marry freed male inmates to aid in settlement and development of the colony.

Shortly after the release of Belbenoît's book, which aroused public outrage about the conditions, the French government announced plans to close the bagne de Cayennes.

Around the middle of the 19th century, an experiment was carried out in which 15 prostitutes were brought to Devil's Island, who were thought to encourage prisoners to live a dignified life and start a family.

[6] After an attempt on 14 January 1858, to assassinate Emperor Napoleon III, Charles DeRudio was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.

Their native boat was nearly wrecked on the reef and the convicts were initially entertained as guests and treated for injuries at the Municipal Hospital.

Henri Charrière's bestselling book Papillon (1969) describes his successful escape from Devil's Island, with a companion, Sylvain.

[8] Felix Milani travelled on the same ship over as Henri Charrière and wrote a book about his experiences titled The Convict.

René Belbenoît is perhaps the most renowned escapee of the penal colony, who wrote about his experiences in two well-received memoirs: Hell on Trial (1940) and The Dry Guillotine: Fifteen Years Among the Living Dead (1938).

Out of compassion and a sense of adventure, Willis set out to the penal colony to effect Bernard Carnot's escape, which he eventually accomplished.

Carnot was smuggled to Brazil aboard a supply ship, and was never reunited with his family, although they learned via Willis that he had gained his freedom.

The islands are under the trajectory of the space rockets launched eastward from the CNES facility toward the sea (to geostationary orbit).

The islands host a variety of measurement apparatus for space launches[10] and some buildings classified as historical monuments have been restored.

[11] In Rob Zombie's 2022 movie The Munsters, Herman and Lilly vacation on the beach at Devil's Island Hotel.