Napoleon III established Devils Island as a penal colony in 1852, and it ran until 1953.
The Island was initially used to harbor prisoners stricken with leprosy but was later converted to hold mainly political prisoners. Devils Island Prison was notorious for its harsh conditions and extreem violence. Disease and prisoner on prisoner violence was so bad that only a fraction of the inmates sent to Devils Island survived their sentence and returned to France. Escape attempts were common, prisoners who were caught attempting escape were sentenced to harsh solitary confinement in complete darkness.
Several literary accounts of the hardships of Devils Island and escapes from the Island have been written, one which was adapted into the 1973 film Papillon.
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