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Perhaps France’s most fabled correctional facility, La Santé – in which ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy is now serving a five year jail term for criminal conspiracy to obtain election financing from the Libyan government – stands as the last remaining prison inside the Paris city limits.

Found in the southern Montparnasse district of the city, it first opened in 1867 and was the site of no fewer than 40 capital punishments, the final one in 1972. Partly shut down for renovation in 2014, the institution reopened in 2019 and accommodates more than 1,100 inmates.

Renowned ex- prisoners encompass the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the financial trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, the businessman and politician Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

VIP Quarters for Prominent Inmates

Prominent or vulnerable inmates are generally placed in the prison's QB4 section for “protected persons” – the dubbed “VIP section” – in individual cells, rather than the standard triple-occupancy rooms, and separated during outdoor activities for security reasons.

Situated on the first floor, the unit has nineteen similar rooms and a private exercise yard so inmates are not forced to mingle with other detainees – even though they are still vulnerable to calls, insults and cellphone pictures from nearby cells.

Mainly for this reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the solitary confinement unit, which is in a isolated area. In reality, circumstances are very similar as in QB4: the past leader will be solitary in his cell and supervised by a prison officer each time he goes out.

“The goal is to avoid any problems at all, so we have to prevent him from encountering other prisoners,” a prison source revealed. “The most straightforward and most efficient solution is to place Nicolas Sarkozy immediately to solitary confinement.”

Living Quarters

Both isolation and protected rooms are similar to those elsewhere in the institution, measuring around 10 square meters, with window blinds designed to reduce interaction, a sleeping cot, a writing table, a shower unit, toilet, 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 acquire items to cook for himself, as well as to a individual recreation area, a gym and the prison library. He can pay for a fridge for seven euros fifty a month and a television for fourteen euros fifteen.

Controlled Interactions

Apart from three authorized meetings a each week, he will mostly be on his own – a privilege in La Santé, which in spite of its recent upgrades is operating at approximately twice its designed capacity of 657 inmates. France’s correctional facilities are the third most overcrowded in the European Union.

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy, who has steadfastly maintained his non-guilt, has declared he will be carrying with him a life story of Jesus and a version of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an falsely convicted person is given a sentence to prison but flees to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was also packing hearing protection because the facility can be loud at night, and several sweaters, because rooms can be chilly. Sarkozy has commented he is fearless of spending time in prison and aims to utilize the time to author a book.

Uncertain Duration

It is unclear, nevertheless, how long he will really be housed in La Santé: his attorneys have submitted for his early release, and an judge on appeal will need to demonstrate a risk of absconding, reoffending or witness-tampering to warrant his ongoing incarceration.

French legal experts have proposed he might be released before a month passes.