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Maybe the nation's most notorious correctional facility, La Santé – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has begun a five year incarceration for criminal conspiracy to raise campaign funds from Libya – stands as the last remaining prison inside the city of Paris.

Located in the southern Montparnasse district of the capital, it opened in 1867 and was the site of no fewer than 40 death penalties, the final one in 1972. Partially closed for upgrades in 2014, the facility reopened in 2019 and houses more than 1,100 inmates.

Renowned former detainees include the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, the public servant and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the businessman and political figure Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and talent scout Jean-Luc Brunel.

Special Treatment for High-Profile Prisoners

Prominent or vulnerable prisoners are generally held in the prison's QB4 section for “vulnerable people” – the dubbed “premium block” – in single cells, not the usual triple-occupancy rooms, and isolated during exercise periods for protection purposes.

Positioned on the first floor, the unit has a set of uniform rooms and a reserved outdoor space so detainees are not forced to mix with other prisoners – while they remain subject to calls, insults and mobile snapshots from neighboring units.

Mainly for that reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the segregated section, which is in a isolated area. Actually, circumstances are very similar as in the protected unit: the past leader will be by himself in his unit and accompanied by a corrections officer each time he leaves it.

“The goal is to avert any problems whatsoever, so we need to block him from meeting any inmates,” a source within the facility stated. “The simplest and most efficient method is to send Nicolas Sarkozy directly to isolation.”

Living Quarters

Each of the isolation and protected rooms are similar to those elsewhere in the institution, averaging approximately eleven square meters, with window blinds created to limit interaction, a bed, a compact desk, a shower unit, lavatory, and stationary phone with pre-set numbers.

Sarkozy will be served standard meals but will additionally have the option to the canteen, where he can purchase food to make his own meals, as well as to a individual exercise yard, a fitness room and the library. He can pay for a refrigerator for seven euros fifty a monthly and a television set for €14.15.

Restricted Visits

In addition to three allowed visits a week, he will mainly be alone – a luxury in the prison, which in spite of its recent renovation is running at roughly double its designed capacity of 657 prisoners. The country's correctional facilities are the third most packed in the European Union.

Prison Supplies

Sarkozy, who has steadfastly protested his non-guilt, has stated he will be bringing with him a biography of Jesus Christ and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is given a sentence to prison but flees to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was additionally packing hearing protection because the jail can be loud at nighttime, and several sweaters, because rooms can be chilly. Sarkozy has stated he is fearless of spending time in prison and aims to use it to compose a manuscript.

Release Prospects

The duration is unknown, nevertheless, how long he will really stay in the facility: his legal team have already filed for his early release, and an appeals judge will have to prove a chance of absconding, further crimes or interfering with witnesses to warrant his ongoing incarceration.

France's jurists have proposed he might be released within a month.