Between 1852 and 1946, the penal colony of French Guiana was sent thousands of men to serve out their sentences in brutal conditions. Sentences ranged from murder to minor offenses such as theft. But all men were forced into hard labor and had little hope to ever return to mainland France, even when their sentences were completed. The Prison of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and the Salvation Islands off the coast have sparked movies, legends and even books by those who somehow managed the impossible feat of escaping and went on to tell the heinous conditions of the colony.