🔗 Share this article

Perhaps France’s most fabled jail, the La Santé prison – where ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five-year incarceration for criminal conspiracy to obtain election financing from the Libyan government – stands as the only remaining prison inside the city of Paris.

Located in the southern Montparnasse district of the capital, it was inaugurated in the year 1867 and was the site of a minimum of 40 executions, the most recent in 1972. Partly closed for renovation in 2014, the institution reopened half a decade later and houses more than 1,100 detainees.

Well-known past detainees comprise poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the financial trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the businessman and political figure Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and talent scout Jean-Luc Brunel.

Special Treatment for Notable Prisoners

Prominent or at-risk inmates are usually held in the jail’s QB4 unit for “individuals at risk” – the so-called “VIP quarters” – in individual cells, rather than the usual three-inmate units, and separated during outdoor activities for safety concerns.

Located on the initial level, the section has nineteen similar units and a private recreation area so detainees are not obliged to mix with fellow inmates – while they remain vulnerable to shouts, taunts and mobile snapshots from nearby cells.

Primarily for that reason, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the solitary confinement unit, which is in a distinct block. Practically, conditions are very similar as in the QB4 ward: the ex-president will be solitary in his cell and supervised by a prison officer whenever he leaves it.

“The objective is to avert any problems whatsoever, so we must stop him from meeting any inmates,” an insider stated. “The easiest and most effective solution is to send Nicolas Sarkozy straight to segregation.”

Cell Conditions

Both solitary and VIP rooms are similar to those elsewhere in the institution, averaging approximately 10 sq metres, with window blinds designed to limit interaction, a bed, a small desk, a shower unit, lavatory, and stationary phone with authorized contacts only.

Sarkozy will be served standard meals but will also have the option to the commissary, where he can purchase food to cook for himself, as well as to a small solitary recreation area, a exercise room and the prison library. He can lease a fridge for 7.50 euros a monthly and a TV for fourteen euros fifteen.

Controlled Interactions

Besides three authorized meetings a per week, he will mostly be by himself – an advantage in La Santé, which in spite of its modernization is functioning at approximately double its designed capacity of 657 inmates. The country's correctional facilities are the third most packed in the European Union.

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy, who has repeatedly protested his non-guilt, has stated he will be carrying with him a life story of Jesus Christ and a version of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an wrongly accused individual is given a sentence to prison but escapes to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, mentioned he was also taking noise blockers because the facility can be loud at night, and multiple sweaters, because rooms can be cold. Sarkozy has commented he is not scared of being in prison and aims to use it to write a publication.

Possible Early Release

It is unclear, however, how long he will really stay in La Santé: his legal team have submitted for his conditional release, and an appeals judge will need to demonstrate a potential of flight, repeat offenses or interfering with witnesses to justify his ongoing incarceration.

French law specialists have indicated he might be released before a month passes.