The rocky, palm-covered island rises 40 m (130 ft) above sea level. The island's use as a penitentiary was begun in 1852 by the government of Emperor Napoleon III. The island is surrounded by rocky promontories and shoals, strong cross-currents and shark-infested waters. Landing on the island by boat is so treacherous that prison officials constructed a cable car system to connect the island to the nearby �le Royale, and used it for years to travel the 600'-wide channel between the two islands.
Devil's island was first used to house the prison system's leper colony. With no understanding of the cause of leprosy (known as Hansen's disease), nor means of treatment, societies isolated its sufferers. Well before 1895, the island was converted to primarily housing political prisoners.
Devil's Island and associated prisons eventually became one of the most infamous prison systems in history. In addition to the prisons on each of the three islands in the Salut island group, the French constructed three related prison facilities on the South American mainland, just across the straits at Kourou; 30 miles east in Cayenne, which later became the capital of French Guyana; and a hundred miles west at the St. Laurent.
While the prison system was in use (1852�1953), inmates included political prisoners (such as 239 republicans who opposed Napoleon III's coup d'�tat in 1851) and the most hardened of thieves and murderers. The vast majority of the more than 80,000 prisoners sent to the Devil's Island Prison System never made it back to France. Many died due to disease and harsh conditions. Sanitary systems were limited, and the region was mosquito-infested, with endemic tropical diseases. The only exit from the island prisons was by water, and few convicts escaped.
On 30 May 1854, France passed a new law of forced residency; it required convicts to stay in French Guiana after completion of sentence for a time equal to their forced labor time. If the
