What Awaits the Former President in La Santé Prison and What Personal Items Did He Bring?

Maybe the nation's most legendary jail, the La Santé prison – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has begun a five year incarceration for criminal conspiracy to raise political donations from the Libyan government – remains the last remaining prison within the French capital's boundaries.

Situated in the southern Montparnasse district of the capital, it opened in the year 1867 and was the scene of a minimum of 40 capital punishments, the final one in 1972. Partly shut down for upgrades in 2014, the institution resumed operations half a decade later and accommodates more than 1,100 detainees.

Famous former inmates include poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the unauthorized trader Jérôme Kerviel, the public servant and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the entrepreneur and political figure Bernard Tapie, the terrorist from the 1970s Carlos the Jackal, and modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

Protected Wing for High-Profile Prisoners

Prominent or at-risk inmates are typically placed in the jail’s QB4 unit for “protected persons” – the dubbed “VIP section” – in single cells, not the typical triple-occupancy rooms, and kept alone during exercise periods for security reasons.

Positioned on the ground floor, the unit has 19 identical units and a reserved outdoor space so inmates are not required to mix with other detainees – while they remain subject to shouts, taunts and cellphone pictures from neighboring units.

Mostly for that reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the isolation ward, which is in a distinct block. Actually, the environment are largely identical as in QB4: the former president will be solitary in his room and supervised by a prison officer every time he exits.

“The aim is to avoid any problems at all, so we have to stop him from meeting other prisoners,” a source within the facility commented. “The most straightforward and most efficient approach is to place Nicolas Sarkozy straight to isolation.”

Cell Conditions

Each of the solitary and VIP rooms are the same to those in other parts in the institution, averaging approximately 10 square meters, with window blinds intended to limit communication, a bed, a compact desk, a shower unit, lavatory, and fixed-line phone with pre-recorded numbers.

Sarkozy will receive standard meals but will additionally have the ability to the prison store, where he can acquire items to make his own meals, as well as to a individual recreation area, a exercise room and the book collection. He can rent a cooling unit for 7.50 euros a monthly and a television for 14.15 euros.

Limited Social Contact

In addition to three permitted visits a week, he will mainly be alone – a privilege in the facility, which in spite of its modernization is operating at about twice its designed capacity of 657 detainees. The country's prisons are the third most overcrowded in the EU bloc.

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy, who has repeatedly asserted his non-guilt, has said he will be carrying with him a life story of Jesus Christ and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail but breaks out to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was additionally bringing earplugs because the facility can be loud at nighttime, and multiple sweaters, because units can be chilly. Sarkozy has stated he is fearless of being in jail and intends to utilize the time to author a book.

Release Prospects

It remains uncertain, nevertheless, for how long he will in fact be housed in the facility: his attorneys have submitted for his premature release, and an judge on appeal will need to demonstrate a potential of flight, reoffending or interfering with witnesses to validate his continued detention.

France's law specialists have indicated he could be out before a month passes.