What to Expect Sarkozy in the La Santé Facility and What Personal Items Did He Bring?

Maybe France’s most fabled correctional facility, the La Santé prison – in which former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five year incarceration for criminal conspiracy to raise political donations from Libya – remains the only remaining prison inside the city of Paris.

Located in the southern Montparnasse district of the capital, it was inaugurated in 1867 and was the scene of at least 40 capital punishments, the final one in 1972. Partially shut down for upgrades in 2014, the prison resumed operations in 2019 and houses in excess of 1,100 inmates.

Famous former detainees comprise poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the tycoon and political figure Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

Protected Wing for High-Profile Inmates

High-profile or endangered detainees are generally held in the jail’s QB4 section for “vulnerable people” – the dubbed “VIP section” – in solitary cells, not the usual three-person rooms, and isolated during outdoor activities for protection purposes.

Positioned on the ground floor, the ward has 19 identical cells and a reserved recreation area so detainees are not obliged to interact with fellow inmates – while they continue to be subject to whistles, jeers and smartphone photos from nearby cells.

Mainly for this reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the segregated section, which is in a distinct block. Practically, conditions are very similar as in the protected unit: the former president will be alone in his unit and accompanied by a guard whenever he exits.

“The goal is to avert any problems at all, so we have to prevent him from meeting any inmates,” a prison source commented. “The simplest and best approach is to place Nicolas Sarkozy straight to solitary confinement.”

Accommodation Details

Both isolation and protected units are similar to those in other parts in the prison, averaging around 10 sq metres, with window coverings created to reduce interaction, a sleeping cot, a small desk, a shower unit, WC, and fixed-line phone with pre-set numbers.

Sarkozy will be served typical prison food but will additionally have the ability to the commissary, where he can buy food to cook for himself, as well as to a individual recreation area, a gym and the book collection. He can lease a cooling unit for 7.50 euros a per month and a television for €14.15.

Controlled Interactions

Besides three permitted visits a each week, he will mostly be by himself – a luxury in the prison, which in spite of its recent renovation is operating at approximately twice its planned occupancy of 657 detainees. The country's jails are the third most overcrowded in the EU bloc.

Prison Supplies

Sarkozy, who has consistently protested his innocence, has stated he will be carrying with him a biography of Jesus and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail but flees to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, noted he was additionally taking earplugs because the facility can be noisy at nighttime, and multiple sweaters, because units can be cold. Sarkozy has stated he is unafraid of being in jail and aims to utilize the time to compose a book.

Uncertain Duration

It remains uncertain, though, how long he will in fact remain in La Santé: his legal team have submitted for his conditional release, and an reviewing judge will need to demonstrate a potential of absconding, repeat offenses or witness-tampering to validate his further imprisonment.

French jurists have indicated he might be released in less than a month.