What Awaits the Former President in the La Santé Facility and What Personal Items Did He Bring?
Maybe the nation's most legendary jail, the La Santé prison – where ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy to obtain political donations from Libya – remains the sole surviving prison within the Paris city limits.
Located in the south part of Montparnasse neighborhood of the city, it opened in the year 1867 and was the site of at least 40 capital punishments, the most recent in 1972. Partly shut down for upgrades in 2014, the facility resumed operations in 2019 and holds over 1,100 detainees.
Renowned former detainees include poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, the public servant and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the entrepreneur and political figure Bernard Tapie, the 70s terrorist Carlos the Jackal, and modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
VIP Quarters for High-Profile Prisoners
Notable or endangered prisoners are usually accommodated in the jail’s QB4 section for “protected persons” – the dubbed “premium block” – in single cells, rather than the standard three-person units, and isolated during exercise periods for protection purposes.
Situated on the ground floor, the section has a set of uniform rooms and a dedicated recreation area so detainees are not required to mingle with other detainees – while they are still subject to shouts, jeers and cellphone pictures from neighboring units.
Primarily for this reason, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the segregated section, which is in a isolated area. Actually, the environment are much the same as in the protected unit: the ex-president will be by himself in his cell and escorted by a guard whenever he exits.
“The goal is to avoid any issues whatsoever, so we have to block him from encountering fellow detainees,” a source within the facility commented. “The most straightforward and best solution is to send Nicolas Sarkozy directly to isolation.”
Cell Conditions
Each of the isolation and protected rooms are similar to those elsewhere in the prison, averaging approximately eleven square meters, with window coverings created to limit communication, a bed, a writing table, a shower unit, toilet, and fixed-line phone with authorized contacts only.
Sarkozy is provided with standard meals but will additionally have access to the prison store, where he can acquire food to prepare himself, as well as to a individual recreation area, a gym and the library. He can pay for a refrigerator for seven euros fifty a monthly and a television for fourteen euros fifteen.
Controlled Interactions
In addition to three allowed visits a per week, he will mostly be by himself – a privilege in the prison, which despite its recent renovation is running at about twice its designed capacity of 657 inmates. France’s prisons are the third most packed in the EU.
Prison Supplies
Sarkozy, who has steadfastly maintained his non-guilt, has declared he will be carrying with him a biography of Jesus Christ and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is condemned to jail but flees to seek vengeance.
Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, noted he was additionally packing earplugs because prison can be noisy at nighttime, and several sweaters, because units can be cold. Sarkozy has stated he is fearless of spending time in jail and aims to use it to author a book.
Possible Early Release
It is unclear, however, the length of time he will really be housed in the facility: his attorneys have submitted for his conditional release, and an judge on appeal will must establish a potential of absconding, reoffending or influencing testimony to justify his ongoing incarceration.
French law specialists have proposed he may be freed within a month.
