Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni prison

After visiting Iracoubo, Jack and I spent last weekend in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, the second largest city of French Guiana. It's on the Maroni River, just across from Suriname.

Much like the British did in Australia, the French government of the nineteenth century decided to solve the problem of overpopulation in prisons and the colonization of a new territory by exiling convicts to French Guiana. All prisoners were sent to this "transportation camp" in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni to be sorted out. Some stayed and carried out their sentence here; others were dispatched to other jails in Guiana.

Here's the entrance to the old Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni prison, now a fascinating- but dismal- museum. (Click on the photos to enlarge)

The prisoners had to wear a striped uniform. No suntan lotion existed in those days to protect them from sunburn-- just a large straw hat.

The prisoners were treated more like animals than humans. They had little food and the sanitary conditions were appalling in their overcrowded barracks. In fact, many prisoners quickly died from the unhygienic environment. Worse still, nobody back in France really cared what happened to them... The prisoners also had to strictly obey rules like "No leaning against a wall". If they did, they could be forced to stand in this sunny courtyard for several hours, where the guillotine was placed.

Some prisoners were put into a tiny cell for isolation and were deprived of food for several days. Here is what the isolation cells look like.

Other prisoners were chained by the foot to a wooden table where they lay for days. Depending on the mood of their guard, their foot was either chained under the bar (thus severely bruised) or their foot was chained over the bar (circulation cut off which led to gangrene and amputation). In this picture, Jack has his feet over the bar which meant, if he were a convict, that he'd lose them from gangrene. Normally, only one foot was chained; the other was left free. A pot was placed under the table which the convict had to (try to) pull out to go to the toilet. And there were no lights...

Few convicts survived. In one cell we visited, we found this graffiti inscribed in a corner of the wall which says "Adieu maman" (Farewell, Mom...)

The Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni prison was used until the 1950's. Today, it's falling into ruins-- a process accelerated by French Guiana's baumy climate.