Imagine the prison of Alcatraz, only 10 times worse, built on tropical, hellish and deadly islands, lost to the rest of the world. Three tiny castaway islands rise away from the coast of French Guyana, in South America: The Devil's Islands. Now buried under an impenetrable jungle, lay the lost remains of what had been for a hundred years the most storied convict prison in history. There, while most of the prisoners faded into oblivion, a few became legends. Some because they were innocent, as in the scandalous Dreyfus Affair, some because they somehow escaped the islands of nightmare, as did the "butterfly", Henry Charrière, immortalized by Steve McQueen in Papillon. Now 50 years after the prison doors slammed shut for the last time, we explore what's left of the Devil's Islands' unbelievably dark and oppressive realm.

Christopher Lee
Narrator

Picturesque India or, In and About Calcutta
Picturesque India or, In and About Calcutta
Hard Time: The Making of Prison
Hard Time: The Making of Prison

Preschool to Prison
Preschool to Prison

The Iceman and the Psychiatrist
The Iceman and the Psychiatrist

Death and the Judge
Death and the Judge

Standard Operating Procedure
Standard Operating Procedure

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.

The Road to Mass Incarceration
The Road to Mass Incarceration

The Farm: 10 Down
The Farm: 10 Down

Orang Utans - Keepers of the Jungle
Orang Utans - Keepers of the Jungle
The Execution Machine: Texas Death Row
The Execution Machine: Texas Death Row

The Art of Incarceration
The Art of Incarceration