What to Expect Sarkozy in the La Santé Facility and What Belongings Has He Taken?
Possibly the nation's most legendary prison, La Santé – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five-year incarceration for criminal conspiracy to raise campaign funds from Libya – is the sole surviving prison within the Paris city limits.
Located in the southern Montparnasse district of the city, it was inaugurated in 1867 and was the site of no fewer than 40 executions, the last in 1972. Partly closed for refurbishment in 2014, the facility resumed operations half a decade later and holds over 1,100 detainees.
Well-known ex- prisoners include poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the financial trader Jérôme Kerviel, the public servant and collaborator with the Nazis Maurice Papon, the tycoon and politician Bernard Tapie, the terrorist from the 1970s Carlos the Jackal, and modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
Protected Wing for Notable Prisoners
High-profile or vulnerable prisoners are typically placed in the jail’s QB4 section for “individuals at risk” – the so-called “VIP quarters” – in solitary cells, not the standard three-person rooms, and isolated during outdoor activities for protection purposes.
Situated on the ground floor, the ward has nineteen similar units and a reserved outdoor space so prisoners are not obliged to mingle with other prisoners – although they are still vulnerable to whistles, insults and mobile snapshots from nearby cells.
Mostly for this reason, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the segregated section, which is in a isolated area. In reality, conditions are much the same as in the QB4 ward: the past leader will be solitary in his unit and escorted by a corrections officer each time he goes out.
“The goal is to avert any issues at all, so we must prevent him from meeting fellow detainees,” a prison source commented. “The simplest and most effective approach is to assign Nicolas Sarkozy directly to segregation.”
Accommodation Details
Each of the isolation and VIP units are identical to those elsewhere in the jail, averaging about 10 square meters, with coverings on windows created to restrict interaction, a bed, a writing table, a shower, lavatory, and fixed-line phone with authorized contacts only.
Sarkozy will receive typical prison food but will additionally have the ability to the canteen, where he can purchase food to cook for himself, as well as to a individual recreation area, a gym and the prison library. He can lease a cooling unit for seven euros fifty a monthly and a television for €14.15.
Limited Social Contact
Apart from three permitted visits a week, he will mainly be alone – a luxury in the facility, which in spite of its recent upgrades is operating at roughly twice its planned occupancy of 657 inmates. France’s jails are the third most congested in the European Union.
Personal Belongings
Sarkozy, who has consistently asserted his non-guilt, has stated he will be taking with him a account of Jesus Christ and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is sentenced to prison but escapes to take revenge.
Sarkozy’s lawyer, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was additionally packing hearing protection because the facility can be noisy at during the night, and several sweaters, because rooms can be cold. Sarkozy has commented he is fearless of serving time in jail and aims to make use of the period to write a book.
Uncertain Duration
It remains uncertain, however, for how long he will actually be housed in the facility: his attorneys have submitted for his early release, and an reviewing judge will must establish a chance of escaping, further crimes or interfering with witnesses to validate his continued detention.
French law specialists have indicated he could be out in less than a month.
