What to Expect the Former President in the La Santé Facility and What Personal Items Did He Bring?

Perhaps the nation's most fabled correctional facility, La Santé – where ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five year incarceration for unlawful collusion to obtain election financing from the Libyan government – is the sole surviving prison inside the city of Paris.

Located in the south part of Montparnasse neighborhood of the capital, it was inaugurated in 1867 and hosted of a minimum of 40 capital punishments, the most recent in 1972. Partly shut down for renovation in 2014, the facility resumed operations half a decade later and accommodates over 1,100 detainees.

Famous past detainees encompass poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, the public servant and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, the tycoon and political figure Bernard Tapie, the terrorist from the 1970s Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

VIP Quarters for High-Profile Inmates

Notable or at-risk prisoners are typically accommodated in the jail’s QB4 ward for “individuals at risk” – the so-called “VIP section” – in single cells, rather than the usual triple-occupancy cells, and kept alone during yard time for security reasons.

Situated on the ground floor, the unit has a set of uniform cells and a dedicated outdoor space so inmates are not obliged to interact with fellow inmates – although they continue to be vulnerable to whistles, insults and cellphone pictures from adjacent cells.

Primarily for that reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the segregated section, which is in a separate wing. Practically, conditions are much the same as in the QB4 ward: the former president will be by himself in his cell and escorted by a corrections officer every time he leaves it.

“The aim is to prevent any incidents whatsoever, so we must stop him from coming into contact with other prisoners,” a source within the facility revealed. “The most straightforward and most efficient method is to place Nicolas Sarkozy immediately to solitary confinement.”

Accommodation Details

Both isolation and protected rooms are identical to those elsewhere in the jail, averaging approximately 10 sq metres, with window blinds designed to limit contact, a bed, a small desk, a shower, toilet, and landline telephone with authorized contacts only.

Sarkozy will receive typical prison food but will additionally have the ability to the commissary, where he can acquire food to prepare himself, as well as to a small solitary recreation area, a exercise room and the library. He can pay for a cooling unit for seven euros fifty a per month and a television set for €14.15.

Restricted Visits

Besides three allowed visits a each week, he will primarily be alone – a luxury in La Santé, which despite its recent renovation is running at roughly double its intended capacity of 657 detainees. France’s jails are the third most overcrowded in the EU.

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence, has declared he will be bringing with him a account of Jesus Christ and a version of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an falsely convicted person is condemned to prison but escapes to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was additionally packing hearing protection because prison can be noisy at night, and several sweaters, because rooms can be chilly. Sarkozy has stated he is not scared of serving time in prison and plans to utilize the time to author a book.

Release Prospects

It remains uncertain, nevertheless, for how long he will in fact stay in the facility: his lawyers have lodged for his premature release, and an reviewing judge will need to demonstrate a chance of escaping, reoffending or witness-tampering to justify his continued detention.

French law specialists have suggested he may be freed in less than a month.