What Awaits the Former President in La Santé Prison and What Personal Items Has He Taken?
Maybe the nation's most fabled jail, La Santé – where ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy is now serving a five-year incarceration for illegal conspiracy to solicit election financing from Libya – remains the last remaining prison inside the Paris city limits.
Situated in the south part of Montparnasse district of the capital, it opened in 1867 and was the scene of a minimum of 40 executions, the most recent in 1972. Partly shut down for renovation in 2014, the facility reopened five years later and holds in excess of 1,100 inmates.
Well-known former prisoners encompass poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the financial trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, the businessman and political figure Bernard Tapie, the 70s terrorist Carlos the Jackal, and modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
Protected Wing for High-Profile Inmates
Prominent or endangered prisoners are typically placed in the prison's QB4 ward for “individuals at risk” – the often called “VIP section” – in solitary cells, not the typical three-person units, and separated during outdoor activities for safety concerns.
Located on the initial level, the unit has a set of uniform rooms and a reserved exercise yard so prisoners are not required to mix with other detainees – although they continue to be vulnerable to whistles, insults and cellphone pictures from adjacent cells.
Primarily for this reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the segregated section, which is in a separate wing. Practically, conditions are very similar as in the protected unit: the past leader will be by himself in his room and accompanied by a guard every time he leaves it.
“The objective is to avoid any incidents whatsoever, so we have to prevent him from encountering fellow detainees,” a source within the facility revealed. “The simplest and best approach is to assign Nicolas Sarkozy directly to isolation.”
Living Quarters
Each of the isolation and protected cells are similar to those in other parts in the jail, averaging about 10 square meters, with window coverings intended to reduce contact, a bed, a small desk, a shower, toilet, and landline telephone with pre-set numbers.
Sarkozy will receive regular meals but will additionally have access to the commissary, where he can buy groceries to cook for himself, as well as to a small solitary exercise yard, a fitness room and the library. He can lease a refrigerator for €7.50 a monthly and a TV for fourteen euros fifteen.
Controlled Interactions
Besides three allowed visits a week, he will mostly be on his own – a luxury in La Santé, which notwithstanding its recent renovation is functioning at about twice its designed capacity of 657 inmates. The country's jails are the third most packed in the European Union.
Items Brought
Sarkozy, who has consistently protested his innocence, has declared he will be bringing with him a account of Jesus Christ and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is condemned to jail but breaks out to seek vengeance.
Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, mentioned he was also packing hearing protection because prison can be disruptive at during the night, and multiple sweaters, because units can be chilly. Sarkozy has said he is unafraid of serving time in jail and intends to utilize the time to compose a book.
Possible Early Release
The duration is unknown, however, how long he will really stay in La Santé: his legal team have submitted for his premature release, and an reviewing judge will must establish a potential of escaping, repeat offenses or witness-tampering to justify his further imprisonment.
France's law specialists have proposed he may be freed in less than a month.
