"A new jail project was established in 1839, in direct connection with the preparation for the abolition of slavery, and in 1851 it was realized by the construction of a new building instead of gendarmes' housing.
The situation of this jail owes nothing to chance. Limited on two sides by the high walls of the theater and the Boulevard, it also rubs the imposing infantry barracks Ursulines north.
As a place of pre-trial detention, this jail accommodates only prisoners sentenced to a maximum of one month's imprisonment.
The eruption of Mount Pelee on May 8, 1902, destroyed the jail heavily, leaving only the dungeon of Cyparis and the basins in its ruins.
The two buildings that constitute it are distributed along a central corridor oriented north-south. East of this corridor opens another smaller corridor which has two cells and which leads to a courtyard in which is a basin and the famous dungeon of Cyparis.
A row of four cells runs along the west side of the central corridor. Three of them open to the west on three courses each with a pool. Each cell has virtually access to a water point of its own."