Perhaps the nation's most notorious jail, La Santé – in which former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five year prison sentence for unlawful collusion to obtain election financing from Libya – remains the only remaining prison inside the city of Paris.
Found in the south part of Montparnasse area of the city, it first opened in the year 1867 and was the scene of at least 40 capital punishments, the most recent in 1972. Partially closed for renovation in 2014, the facility reopened five years later and houses more than 1,100 inmates.
Famous ex- detainees encompass poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the unauthorized trader Jérôme Kerviel, the government official and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, the entrepreneur and political figure Bernard Tapie, the 70s terrorist Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
Prominent or at-risk inmates are usually placed in the prison's QB4 section for “protected persons” – the often called “VIP quarters” – in individual cells, rather than the typical triple-occupancy units, and kept alone during outdoor activities for safety concerns.
Situated on the initial level, the unit has 19 identical units and a reserved recreation area so inmates are not obliged to interact with fellow inmates – even though they remain subject to calls, insults and cellphone pictures from adjacent cells.
Mainly for this reason, Sarkozy will reportedly be held in the segregated section, which is in a isolated area. Practically, circumstances are very similar as in the protected unit: the former president will be alone in his cell and accompanied by a guard whenever he exits.
“The goal is to avert any incidents whatsoever, so we need to prevent him from encountering any inmates,” a source within the facility stated. “The most straightforward and best approach is to assign Nicolas Sarkozy immediately to solitary confinement.”
Each of the solitary and protected cells are the same to those in other parts in the institution, averaging approximately 10 sq metres, with coverings on windows designed to limit contact, a bed, a small desk, a shower, toilet, and fixed-line phone with pre-recorded numbers.
Sarkozy is provided with regular meals but will additionally have the option to the canteen, where he can purchase food to make his own meals, as well as to a small solitary outdoor space, a gym and the library. He can rent a fridge for 7.50 euros a per month and a television for €14.15.
Besides three authorized meetings a week, he will mainly be on his own – a luxury in the facility, which notwithstanding its recent renovation is operating at approximately double its planned occupancy of 657 detainees. The country's prisons are the third most overcrowded in the European Union.
Sarkozy, who has steadfastly asserted his innocence, has stated he will be carrying with him a account of Jesus and a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an falsely convicted person is sentenced to jail but flees to take revenge.
Sarkozy’s lawyer, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was also packing noise blockers because the facility can be noisy at during the night, and multiple sweaters, because cells can be cool. Sarkozy has said he is not scared of spending time in prison and plans to make use of the period to write a manuscript.
The duration is unknown, however, the length of time he will in fact be housed in the prison: his attorneys have already filed for his early release, and an judge on appeal will have to prove a chance of flight, reoffending or interfering with witnesses to validate his further imprisonment.
France's law specialists have suggested he may be freed in less than a month.
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