What Awaits the Former President in the La Santé Facility and What Personal Items Did He Bring?
Possibly France’s most fabled prison, La Santé – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has begun a five year incarceration for criminal conspiracy to raise election financing from the Libyan government – is the sole surviving prison inside the Paris city limits.
Found in the southern Montparnasse district of the city, it was inaugurated in the year 1867 and was the scene of a minimum of 40 executions, the last in 1972. Partially shut down for refurbishment in 2014, the institution resumed operations half a decade later and holds over 1,100 inmates.
Famous former detainees encompass poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the financial trader Jérôme Kerviel, the public servant and collaborator with the Nazis Maurice Papon, the businessman and political figure Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
Protected Wing for High-Profile Inmates
Notable or endangered detainees are generally accommodated in the prison's QB4 unit for “protected persons” – the often called “VIP section” – in single cells, not the usual three-inmate cells, and kept alone during outdoor activities for safety concerns.
Located on the ground floor, the unit has nineteen similar rooms and a dedicated exercise yard so prisoners are not required to mix with other detainees – even though they continue to be exposed to shouts, jeers and cellphone pictures from neighboring units.
Mainly for this reason, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the isolation ward, which is in a distinct block. Actually, circumstances are largely identical as in QB4: the ex-president will be alone in his room and supervised by a guard whenever he exits.
“The goal is to avert any incidents at all, so we must prevent him from meeting fellow detainees,” a source within the facility revealed. “The most straightforward and most effective approach is to send Nicolas Sarkozy straight to isolation.”
Living Quarters
Both solitary and VIP units are identical to those elsewhere in the jail, averaging approximately 10 square meters, with window coverings designed to reduce contact, a bed, a small desk, a shower, toilet, and landline telephone with pre-set numbers.
Sarkozy will be served typical prison food but will additionally have the ability to the canteen, where he can buy items to cook for himself, as well as to a small solitary exercise yard, a fitness room and the library. He can rent a cooling unit for seven euros fifty a month and a TV for €14.15.
Limited Social Contact
Besides three authorized meetings a per week, he will mostly be on his own – an advantage in La Santé, which in spite of its recent renovation is functioning at approximately twice its designed capacity of 657 prisoners. The country's correctional facilities are the third most packed in the EU bloc.
Items Brought
Sarkozy, who has steadfastly maintained his non-guilt, has stated he will be taking with him a biography of Jesus and a version of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail but breaks out to take revenge.
Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, noted he was also bringing hearing protection because the facility can be noisy at nighttime, and several sweaters, because units can be cold. Sarkozy has commented he is fearless of spending time in jail and plans to use it to write a manuscript.
Uncertain Duration
It is unclear, however, how long he will really stay in La Santé: his legal team have lodged for his premature release, and an reviewing judge will have to prove a chance of escaping, repeat offenses or witness-tampering to justify his ongoing incarceration.
French jurists have indicated he may be freed in less than a month.
