What Awaits the Former President in the La Santé Facility and What Belongings Has He Taken?
Maybe France’s most legendary correctional facility, La Santé – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five year incarceration for illegal conspiracy to raise political donations from Libya – stands as the only remaining prison inside the Paris city limits.
Located in the south part of Montparnasse area of the city, it first opened in 1867 and was the site of at least 40 executions, the final one in 1972. Partially shut down for refurbishment in 2014, the prison resumed operations half a decade later and houses in excess of 1,100 inmates.
Famous former prisoners include poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and collaborator with the Nazis Maurice Papon, the businessman and political figure Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
VIP Quarters for High-Profile Prisoners
Notable or endangered prisoners are usually accommodated in the prison's QB4 unit for “protected persons” – the so-called “premium block” – in single cells, rather than the typical three-person rooms, and separated during yard time for protection purposes.
Positioned on the initial level, the ward has nineteen similar cells and a private outdoor space so prisoners are not obliged to mingle with other prisoners – while they are still exposed to whistles, insults and cellphone pictures from nearby cells.
Mainly for this reason, Sarkozy will reportedly be held in the isolation ward, which is in a isolated area. Practically, circumstances are very similar as in QB4: the ex-president will be by himself in his cell and accompanied by a prison officer each time he goes out.
“The aim is to avert any problems at all, so we must block him from encountering any inmates,” a source within the facility stated. “The simplest and best method is to send Nicolas Sarkozy directly to segregation.”
Accommodation Details
Each of the isolation and protected cells are similar to those in other parts in the jail, measuring approximately eleven square meters, with window blinds created to limit interaction, a sleeping cot, a compact desk, a shower unit, WC, and stationary phone with authorized contacts only.
Sarkozy will receive regular meals but will also have the ability to the prison store, where he can buy items to cook for himself, as well as to a small solitary outdoor space, a exercise room and the book collection. He can lease a cooling unit for 7.50 euros a month and a television for 14.15 euros.
Controlled Interactions
In addition to three authorized meetings a each week, he will primarily be alone – a privilege in the facility, which notwithstanding its modernization is operating at roughly double its planned occupancy of 657 inmates. France’s correctional facilities are the third most congested in the European Union.
Items Brought
Sarkozy, who has consistently protested his innocence, has declared he will be bringing with him a life story of Jesus Christ and a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an wrongly accused individual is sentenced to jail but breaks out to seek vengeance.
Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was also taking hearing protection because prison can be disruptive at during the night, and a few jumpers, because rooms can be cold. Sarkozy has commented he is fearless of spending time in prison and aims to utilize the time to author a publication.
Uncertain Duration
It remains uncertain, nevertheless, for how long he will in fact stay in the prison: his attorneys have already filed for his premature release, and an reviewing judge will must establish a potential of absconding, repeat offenses or interfering with witnesses to justify his continued detention.
France's legal experts have indicated he may be freed before a month passes.
