▲This island was named Isla de los Alcatraces (Pelican Island) by a Spanish explorer.

▲This small rocky island in the middle of San Francisco Bay has held some of the United States' most feared prisoners.

▲'The Rock' opened in 1934 and in total was home to 1,545 prisoners during its nearly three decades of operation, including Al Capone, Doc Barker of the infamous Ma Barker gang, Robert Stroud, also known as the 'Birdman of Alcatraz' and George 'Machine Gun' Kelly.

▲This island is Panama's biggest at 122,000 acres, and is surrounded by shark infested waters.

▲Indigenous people lived on the island up until the colonization of the Americas. It was later inhabited by pirates. In 1919, a prison designed to home Panama's most dangerous criminals was built.

▲Political dissidents were sent here under the military dictatorships of Omar Torrijos and Manuel Noriega.

▲History's most notorious prison island, Devil's island is in truth made up of several prisons, one near the capital Cayenne and three offshore reserved for more dangerous criminals: Isle Royale, Isle St. Joseph and Devil's Island.

▲Napoleon III established the prison in 1854 and around 80,000 French criminals, spies and political prisoners were sent here before it was officially closed in 1938.

▲It was known as the 'Dry Guillotine' due to the high death rate due to disease, harsh work conditions and hunger.

▲Between 1946 and 1959 the Ecuadorian government used Isabela, the biggest of the Galápagos, as an agricultural colony.

▲Nearly 300 prisoners, criminals and political dissidents were kept here in very harsh conditions.

▲Some prisoners died during the construction of a wall which became known as the Wall of Tears.

▲Off the coast of Cannes in the Mediterranean Sea, the wooded island of Sainte-Marguerite was home to one of history's most interesting prisoners.

▲The prisoner, whose identity was hidden by a black velvet cloth mask, was brought to the island in 1687, during the reign of Louis XIV, and locked up in the Fort Royal, later in a state prison. He was transferred to the Bastille, where he died in 1703 aged 45.

▲The identity of the prisoner and the motive for his imprisonment are unknown. There is a popular theory which says that he was the older brother of Louis XIV, which inspired Alexander Dumas' classic story 'The Man in the Iron Mask.'

▲The 13 square mile island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea is, according to christian tradition, where John the Apostle was exiled in 95 AD after being persecuted by the Romans, and where he wrote the Book of Revelation.

▲Ten centuries later in 1088, a monastery was built on the island, dedicated to the apostle.

▲This established Patmos as a place of pilgrimage and a center of Greek Orthodox learning.

▲Seven Miles away from Cape Town is Robben Island, used as a place of exile for most of the last 400 years.

▲It was mostly used by the British and Dutch as a leper colony and mental hospital between 1846 and 1931, and then as a political prison for those who opposed the apartheid regime from 1960 to 1991.

▲Many well-known opposition members, like Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe and former South African president Jacob Zuma were held on the island in brutal conditions, harassed and forced to work in the island's quarries.

▲In 1704, British corsair Alexander Selkirk was abandoned on the island then known as Más a Tierra (closer to land) in the Pacific after fighting with the captain of his ship, the Cinque Ports.

▲He lived alone on the island for more than four years until he was rescued by a ship that passed by in February 1709.

▲The Chilean government changed the name from Más a Tierra to Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966, in the hope of attracting tourism.

▲With its mountains, forests and temperate climate, Sado Island is now a popular destination.

▲In the middle ages the island, which sits 32 kilometers from the Niigata prefecture in the Japanese Sea, was a place of punishment for anybody who opposed the government.

▲More than 70 people including aristocrats and artists were exiled here, beginning in 722 AD with poet Asomioyu Hozumi, who criticized the emperor.

▲Located in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, it is one of the world's most remote islands.

▲The British sent Napoleon into exile after the defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

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Napoleon and 26 of his men were left here in the Longwood House, a former summer residence.

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There are islands around the world which have been used to exile criminals, political prisoners, and people who the government just didn't want around. Well-known historic figures like Nelson Mandela and Napoleon did time in island prisons. Check out the gallery and see these islands which were turned into prisons!