Which island off the coast of French Guiana was a notorious penal colony?

Which island off the coast of French Guiana was a notorious penal colony? Devil's Island is the answer.

Devil’s Island, or Île du Diable, was the most infamous part of France’s penal-colony system in French Guiana. It belongs to the Salvation Islands, a small group roughly 14 kilometres off the coast near Kourou. The penal system operated from 1852 until its final closure in 1953.

The island became particularly associated with political prisoners and internal exile. The best-known inmate was French army captain Alfred Dreyfus, whose wrongful treason conviction sent him there in 1895. Harsh isolation, tropical disease, dangerous surrounding waters and brutal prison conditions made the colony notorious.

A common mix-up is treating “Devil’s Island” as the name of the entire prison system. Île Royale served as the reception centre for many prisoners, while Saint-Joseph Island was used for solitary confinement. In popular culture, however, the name Devil’s Island became shorthand for the wider French Guiana penal colony, especially through accounts such as Henri Charrière’s Papillon.