What Lies Ahead the Former President in the La Santé Facility and What Personal Items Did He Bring?
Possibly France’s most notorious correctional facility, the La Santé prison – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is now serving a five-year prison sentence for unlawful collusion to obtain campaign funds from Libya – is the last remaining prison inside the Paris city limits.
Situated in the southern Montparnasse district of the capital, it was inaugurated in the year 1867 and was the scene of no fewer than 40 executions, the last in 1972. Partially shut down for renovation in 2014, the institution resumed operations five years later and holds in excess of 1,100 prisoners.
Renowned ex- detainees include poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the unauthorized trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the businessman and politician Bernard Tapie, the 70s terrorist Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
Protected Wing for High-Profile Prisoners
High-profile or at-risk prisoners are usually held in the jail’s QB4 ward for “vulnerable people” – the dubbed “VIP section” – in single cells, not the standard three-inmate rooms, and separated during yard time for security reasons.
Positioned on the ground floor, the section has 19 identical units and a dedicated recreation area so inmates are not forced to mingle with other detainees – although they remain vulnerable to calls, jeers and smartphone photos from neighboring units.
Primarily for this reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the solitary confinement unit, which is in a separate wing. In reality, conditions are largely identical as in QB4: the ex-president will be alone in his room and supervised by a guard each time he leaves it.
“The aim is to avoid any incidents whatsoever, so we must block him from coming into contact with fellow detainees,” a source within the facility commented. “The simplest and most efficient solution is to place Nicolas Sarkozy directly to solitary confinement.”
Cell Conditions
Both isolation and protected rooms are the same to those elsewhere in the institution, measuring around 10 sq metres, with window blinds designed to limit contact, a bed, a writing table, a shower unit, toilet, and fixed-line phone with pre-recorded numbers.
Sarkozy will receive regular meals but will also have access to the canteen, where he can acquire food to prepare himself, as well as to a individual outdoor space, a fitness room and the library. He can lease a refrigerator for seven euros fifty a per month and a television set for 14.15 euros.
Restricted Visits
Apart from three allowed visits a week, he will mostly be by himself – a luxury in the facility, which despite its recent renovation is functioning at about double its planned occupancy of 657 detainees. The country's correctional facilities are the third most packed in the European Union.
Prison Supplies
Sarkozy, who has steadfastly protested his innocence, has stated he will be taking with him a account of Jesus and a version of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an wrongly accused individual is given a sentence to prison but flees to seek vengeance.
Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, noted he was also taking hearing protection because prison can be disruptive at nighttime, and several sweaters, because units can be cold. Sarkozy has said he is fearless of being in jail and plans to utilize the time to compose a manuscript.
Uncertain Duration
It remains uncertain, however, how long he will actually be housed in the prison: his lawyers have lodged for his early release, and an reviewing judge will have to prove a chance of flight, reoffending or interfering with witnesses to justify his ongoing incarceration.
French jurists have proposed he may be freed before a month passes.
