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France · Cayenne

Cayenne's Prison

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Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit Cayenne's Prison

Step-by-step guidance using the France system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

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Photograph of Cayenne's Prison

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • "Le garçon de famille". Illustration de bagnard au bagne de Cayenne.jpg

    Photo by Unknown authorUnknown author via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • A Cayenne le dortoir du pénitencier.jpg

    Photo by Unknown early 1900s via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Plan du pénitencier de l'Ilet la Mère, Voyage dans la Guyane française Hachette, 1866, Cartographie.png

    Photo by Frédéric Bouyer et Édouard Charton (dir.) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Révolte des anarchistes sur le navire qui les transporte au bagne de Cayenne, le 10 septembre 1894.jpg

    Photo by Alexandre Jean-Baptiste Brun via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Capacity

—

Current population

—

Occupancy

—

Year opened

1852

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 29 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

—

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1852

Region

Cayenne

Security level

—

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Notable inmates

  • Méhée de La Touche
    1762–1827 · diplomat

    Jean-Claude-Hippolyte Méhée de La Touche (1762-1826) was the son of a surgeon in Meaux.

  • André Ailhaud
    1799–1854 · politician
  • Henri Lafont
    Henri Lafont
    1902–1944 · torturer
  • Guillaume Seznec
    Guillaume Seznec
    1878–1954
  • Louis Ange Pitou
    Louis Ange Pitou
    1767–1846 · journalist

    Louis Ange Pitou (April 1767 in Valainville, a commune of Moléans 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from Châteaudun – 8 May 1846 in Paris) was a French author and counterrevolutionary.

  • Henri Charrière
    1906–1973 · writer

    Henri Charrière (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi ʃaʁjɛʁ]; 16 November 1906 – 29 July 1973) was a French writer who was convicted of murder in 1931 by the French courts and pardoned in 1970.

  • Léon Chautard
    1812–1890 · socialist

Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

—
Insufficient data
We don't have enough public data on this facility to score it. Have something to add? Send us a correction.

Related facilities

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Data completeness

16%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Cayenne's Prison. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/cayenne-s-prison
Chicago
"Cayenne's Prison." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/cayenne-s-prison.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-cayenne-s-prison,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Cayenne's Prison},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/cayenne-s-prison},
  urldate = {2026-10-20}
}