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Possibly the nation's most legendary correctional facility, the La Santé prison – in which former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five-year prison sentence for illegal conspiracy to obtain election financing from Libya – is the last remaining prison inside the city of Paris.

Situated in the south part of Montparnasse neighborhood of the capital, it first opened in 1867 and was the scene of at least 40 executions, the most recent in 1972. Partially closed for renovation in 2014, the facility resumed operations in 2019 and houses in excess of 1,100 prisoners.

Famous former inmates comprise poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the financial trader Jérôme Kerviel, the public servant and collaborator with the Nazis Maurice Papon, the entrepreneur and political figure Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

Protected Wing for Prominent Prisoners

High-profile or at-risk prisoners are typically placed in the jail’s QB4 ward for “protected persons” – the so-called “VIP quarters” – in solitary cells, not the typical three-inmate units, and isolated during exercise periods for security reasons.

Located on the initial level, the section has a set of uniform units and a dedicated outdoor space so detainees are not forced to interact with other prisoners – although they continue to be vulnerable to shouts, taunts and mobile snapshots from adjacent cells.

Primarily for this reason, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the isolation ward, which is in a isolated area. Actually, circumstances are much the same as in the QB4 ward: the former president will be by himself in his room and escorted by a guard each time he leaves it.

“The objective is to avert any issues at all, so we must prevent him from encountering any inmates,” a source within the facility commented. “The most straightforward and most efficient solution is to send Nicolas Sarkozy directly to isolation.”

Cell Conditions

Each of the solitary and VIP cells are similar to those elsewhere in the prison, roughly about 10 square meters, with window coverings designed to reduce contact, a bed, a compact desk, a shower unit, WC, and fixed-line phone with pre-set numbers.

Sarkozy will be served typical prison food but will additionally have access to the prison store, where he can buy food to make his own meals, as well as to a private exercise yard, a fitness room and the prison library. He can lease a cooling unit for seven euros fifty a monthly and a television for fourteen euros fifteen.

Controlled Interactions

In addition to three allowed visits a per week, he will mostly be by himself – an advantage in the facility, which in spite of its modernization is running at approximately twice its planned occupancy of 657 inmates. The country's correctional facilities are the third most overcrowded in the EU bloc.

Prison Supplies

Sarkozy, who has steadfastly protested his non-guilt, has declared he will be carrying with him a biography of Jesus and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an falsely convicted person is condemned to prison but breaks out to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, mentioned he was also packing earplugs because the jail can be disruptive at night, and several sweaters, because rooms can be chilly. Sarkozy has said he is not scared of being in prison and plans to use it to write a manuscript.

Release Prospects

The duration is unknown, though, the length of time he will actually be housed in La Santé: his legal team have already filed for his conditional release, and an reviewing judge will need to demonstrate a risk of absconding, further crimes or influencing testimony to validate his further imprisonment.

France's jurists have proposed he could be out in less than a month.