What to Expect the Former President in La Santé Prison and What Personal Items Did He Bring?
Perhaps France’s most notorious jail, the La Santé prison – in which ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five year jail term for illegal conspiracy to obtain political donations from the Libyan government – remains the sole surviving prison within the French capital's boundaries.
Located in the south part of Montparnasse district of the capital, it opened in the year 1867 and was the site of a minimum of 40 capital punishments, the most recent in 1972. Partly closed for upgrades in 2014, the institution reopened in 2019 and holds more than 1,100 prisoners.
Famous former inmates include the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, the entrepreneur and politician Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
Protected Wing for Notable Prisoners
Notable or at-risk inmates are generally held in the prison's QB4 ward for “protected persons” – the dubbed “VIP quarters” – in individual cells, rather than the standard three-person rooms, and kept alone during exercise periods for security reasons.
Positioned on the first floor, the section has nineteen similar rooms and a reserved exercise yard so detainees are not forced to interact with other detainees – although they continue to be exposed to shouts, taunts and cellphone pictures from nearby cells.
Primarily for such concerns, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the solitary confinement unit, which is in a separate wing. Actually, conditions are much the same as in the protected unit: the ex-president will be alone in his cell and supervised by a corrections officer whenever he leaves it.
“The objective is to prevent any issues whatsoever, so we must prevent him from encountering other prisoners,” a prison source stated. “The most straightforward and most efficient solution is to assign Nicolas Sarkozy straight to segregation.”
Living Quarters
Both isolation and VIP cells are identical to those in other parts in the institution, roughly about 10 sq metres, with window blinds created to limit communication, a bed, a small desk, a shower unit, toilet, and landline telephone with pre-recorded numbers.
Sarkozy will receive typical prison food but will also have the ability to the canteen, where he can buy groceries to make his own meals, as well as to a individual recreation area, a exercise room and the prison library. He can pay for a refrigerator for €7.50 a per month and a television for €14.15.
Restricted Visits
Besides three allowed visits a per week, he will primarily be on his own – an advantage in La Santé, which despite its recent upgrades is operating at roughly double its designed capacity of 657 detainees. The country's prisons are the third most overcrowded in the EU bloc.
Personal Belongings
Sarkozy, who has repeatedly maintained his innocence, has stated he will be carrying with him a life story of Jesus Christ and a version of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is condemned to prison but escapes to take revenge.
Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, noted he was also bringing earplugs because the facility can be disruptive at nighttime, and multiple sweaters, because rooms can be cold. Sarkozy has said he is unafraid of spending time in prison and aims to make use of the period to compose a book.
Possible Early Release
The duration is unknown, nevertheless, for how long he will really be housed in the facility: his attorneys have already filed for his early release, and an appeals judge will need to demonstrate a potential of escaping, further crimes or interfering with witnesses to validate his further imprisonment.
France's law specialists have proposed he could be out in less than a month.
