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Possibly France’s most notorious jail, the La Santé prison – where ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy is now serving a five year incarceration for illegal conspiracy to solicit campaign funds from Libya – is the sole surviving prison inside the city of Paris.

Situated in the southern Montparnasse area of the capital, it was inaugurated in 1867 and was the site of a minimum of 40 capital punishments, the final one in 1972. Partly shut down for renovation in 2014, the institution reopened half a decade later and houses over 1,100 inmates.

Well-known former inmates comprise poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the financial trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the businessman and politician Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

Special Treatment for Notable Prisoners

Prominent or endangered inmates are usually accommodated in the jail’s QB4 unit for “individuals at risk” – the so-called “premium block” – in solitary cells, not the usual triple-occupancy units, and separated during outdoor activities for safety concerns.

Situated on the ground floor, the section has 19 identical units and a private exercise yard so prisoners are not obliged to interact with other prisoners – although they continue to be exposed to shouts, taunts and mobile snapshots from nearby cells.

Mostly for such concerns, Sarkozy will reportedly be held in the solitary confinement unit, which is in a distinct block. Actually, conditions are largely identical as in the protected unit: the former president will be solitary in his room and supervised by a prison officer each time he leaves it.

“The objective is to prevent any issues whatsoever, so we need to stop him from coming into contact with other prisoners,” an insider revealed. “The simplest and most efficient solution is to send Nicolas Sarkozy directly to segregation.”

Cell Conditions

Both isolation and protected rooms are the same to those in other parts in the jail, measuring around eleven square meters, with coverings on windows created to restrict contact, a sleeping cot, a compact desk, a shower, toilet, and fixed-line phone with pre-recorded numbers.

Sarkozy is provided with regular meals but will also have access to the canteen, 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 pay for a refrigerator for seven euros fifty a per month and a TV for 14.15 euros.

Limited Social Contact

Apart from three authorized meetings a week, he will mostly be alone – a luxury in the prison, which notwithstanding its recent upgrades is operating at about double its designed capacity of 657 detainees. France’s correctional facilities are the third most overcrowded in the EU.

Prison Supplies

Sarkozy, who has steadfastly protested his innocence, has declared he will be taking with him a life story of Jesus Christ and a version of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is given a sentence to jail but flees to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, mentioned he was additionally bringing earplugs because prison can be loud at during the night, and several sweaters, because rooms can be chilly. Sarkozy has stated he is unafraid of spending time in jail and aims to use it to compose a publication.

Release Prospects

The duration is unknown, though, for how long he will really remain in the prison: his legal team have lodged for his early release, and an reviewing judge will have to prove a potential of escaping, further crimes or interfering with witnesses to validate his further imprisonment.

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