World’s most notorious prison where inmates died due to hunger and severe beatings

Devil’s Island used to be a terrifying prison for only the most ferocious of inmates. Saint-Joseph island, also known as the man-eater and the dry guillotine, housed 60,000 prisoners in the harshest conditions possible.

Between 1852 and 1946, inmates were sent on 15-day journeys in cramped cages to the island, where they would either do the work previously done by slaves or face torture and years of solitary confinement if they refused or attempted to escape.

Many of the inmates died as a result of beatings, hunger, or suicide. Others spent years imprisoned in dark dungeons, isolated from light and human contact. Prisoners in solitary confinement were not allowed to talk, smoke, read, hold any objects, or sit before bedtime.

Graves of inmates that died in prison 

They had nothing to do but turn in their cages, and they were only allowed a one-hour walk in a special cell with an open roof. The prisoners would be fed soup by sticking their heads through a hole in their cage. The island became the most feared place in the colony after it was reserved only for the worst prisoners.

Those who managed to break free from their cells would almost certainly be eaten by the sharks or piranhas that live in the surrounding sea. The island is now free of prisoners, but its haunting history has kept it from finding a new use.

After attempts to build a summer camp, a police station, and a factory on the island failed, the area was abandoned and left to nature. It is a famous part of French history, in the past, the most dangerous prisoners were sent to Guyana, where they were subjected to inhumane detention conditions.

Those whose sentences were longer than seven years were required to remain in Guyana indefinitely following their detention. The suffering in these cells, where they had nothing to do, not even speak or lay down on the floor, with poor food and health care, is horrifying; more than a third of the prisoners sent there died while serving their sentence.