France has a long history of using islands as prisons – and not just in distant colonial outposts

France is surrounded by over 100 islands. These days, many of the islands are popular tourist destinations, providing the opportunity for sun-soaked holidays on sandy beaches or an escape from the bustle of the mainland.

Others are home to nature reserves and areas of special environmental interest, requiring authorised permission to visit. There is even an island off France’s Mediterranean coast, Île du Levant, that is partially taken up by a nudist haven.

But, alongside being idyllic getaways, French islands have historically held another important role: as prisons. This may bring to mind the notorious overseas penal colonies of the French Empire (1852–1952), such as Devil’s Island in French Guiana or New Caledonia in the south Pacific, where criminals were exiled and condemned to forced labour.

However, islands much closer to the French mainland also have significant histories of incarceration. Some of these islands, including Belle-Île-en-mer off the coast of Brittany, were used as sites of detention for young offenders, or colonies agricoles.

Up to a point, the overseas penal colonies functioned in parallel with the penitentiary on Belle-Île. Guiana and New Caledonia were both officially designated as penal colonies in the second half of the 19th century, a few decades before the citadel in Belle-Île formally became a young offenders’ institute.

But the beginning of the 20th century saw public and political sentiment towards the overseas penal colonies start to change, which was mirrored by a shift in attitudes towards colonies agricoles in France.

This was, at least in part, due to a prisoners’ revolt that broke out on Belle-Île 90 years ago, on August 27, 1934. The revolt, which saw 56 prisoners briefly escape, was crucial in bringing to public attention the poor conditions in which the young inmates within these institutions lived and worked, as well as the violence that was enacted on them by prison guards.

It contributed to the reform of colonies agricoles in France and, in most cases, to their closure. The most infamous of these institutions, inland in Mettray near the city of Tours, for example, closed in 1937. But the island prison on Belle-Île went somewhat under the radar, remaining open until 1977.

Jail break

According to journalist Alexis Danan who, in the early 20th century, had published critiques of the use of these penal colonies for young offenders, the Belle-Île revolt began during an evening mealtime when one of the inmates had the temerity to bite into their portion of cheese before eating their soup.

The guards reacted by beating the culprit, throwing him to the ground and kicking him repeatedly. The violence on the part of the guards instigated a riot among the inmates that, according to Danan, could well have ended in murder if weapons had been involved.

But the rioting prisoners instead destroyed any furniture they could get their hands on and eventually managed to scale the walls and escape the citadel. They did not get very far. The escapees were found and returned to the prison to await further and greater punishment.

Aiding the prison guards in recapturing each of the escaped prisoners were residents of Belle-Île-en-mer and even tourists. But what made the escape so difficult was the prison’s very location on an island. Even if the prisoners succeeded in escaping the prison walls, the natural boundaries of the island provided an additional, insurmountable border to cross.

Perhaps it is for this reason that the penitentiary in Belle-Île remained open for so long. In fact, another island off France’s Atlantic coast, Île de Ré, houses one of France’s largest prisons to this day. Conceiving of islands as sites of detention thus did not come to an end with the closure of the overseas penal colonies and the end of the Empire.

Only recently have there been moves towards uncovering the full past (and present) of island prisons just off the French mainland. The La Colonie association, which was set up in 2019, aims to shed light on the largely unknown history of the penal colony in Belle-Île.

As well as providing an archive of documentary sources on the penitentiary, the association has collected testimonies from former inmates and publishes them on its website. Such work brings to light the extent to which islands off the coast of France continued to be conceived as sites of detention well into the 20th century and beyond.