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Maybe France’s most notorious correctional facility, La Santé – where ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy is now serving a five-year jail term for unlawful collusion to solicit campaign funds from Libya – remains the last remaining prison within the Paris city limits.

Located in the south part of Montparnasse area of the capital, it first opened in the year 1867 and was the scene of no fewer than 40 executions, the final one in 1972. Partly closed for refurbishment in 2014, the institution reopened in 2019 and accommodates over 1,100 prisoners.

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

Special Treatment for Prominent Inmates

Notable or vulnerable prisoners are usually held in the jail’s QB4 section for “vulnerable people” – the often called “VIP quarters” – in solitary cells, rather than the standard three-inmate units, and kept alone during exercise periods for security reasons.

Located on the initial level, the unit has a set of uniform cells and a private recreation area so inmates are not required to interact with other prisoners – while they remain vulnerable to calls, jeers and mobile snapshots from nearby cells.

Mostly for that reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the segregated section, which is in a isolated area. Practically, the environment are largely identical as in the protected unit: the former president will be alone in his cell and supervised by a prison officer each time he leaves it.

“The objective is to avoid any issues whatsoever, so we have to stop him from encountering any inmates,” a prison source revealed. “The most straightforward and best solution is to place Nicolas Sarkozy directly to isolation.”

Cell Conditions

Each of the solitary and protected units are identical to those elsewhere in the institution, roughly about 10 square meters, with window coverings designed to restrict communication, a bed, a small desk, a shower, toilet, and fixed-line phone with authorized contacts only.

Sarkozy is provided with typical prison food but will also have the ability to the canteen, where he can purchase groceries to make his own meals, as well as to a individual recreation area, a fitness room and the book collection. He can pay for a refrigerator for €7.50 a per month and a TV for 14.15 euros.

Restricted Visits

Besides three authorized meetings a week, he will mostly be by himself – a luxury in the facility, which despite its modernization is functioning at roughly twice its designed capacity of 657 prisoners. The country's jails are the third most packed in the European Union.

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy, who has repeatedly 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 innocent man is given a sentence to prison but escapes to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, mentioned he was additionally bringing noise blockers because prison can be noisy at nighttime, and a few jumpers, because rooms can be cold. Sarkozy has said he is fearless of being in prison and intends to utilize the time to author a book.

Release Prospects

It is unclear, though, for how long he will actually be housed in La Santé: his lawyers have lodged for his conditional release, and an appeals judge will have to prove a potential of flight, reoffending or influencing testimony to validate his ongoing incarceration.

France's law specialists have indicated he might be released before a month passes.