What to Expect Sarkozy in La Santé Prison and What Personal Items Did He Bring?
Maybe France’s most fabled jail, the La Santé prison – where ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five year jail term for unlawful collusion to solicit election financing from Libya – stands as the only remaining prison within the city of Paris.
Situated in the south part of Montparnasse area of the capital, it was inaugurated in the year 1867 and was the site of at least 40 capital punishments, the last in 1972. Partially shut down for renovation in 2014, the facility resumed operations half a decade later and houses more than 1,100 detainees.
Famous former inmates comprise poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the unauthorized trader Jérôme Kerviel, the government official and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the businessman and politician Bernard Tapie, the 70s terrorist Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
Protected Wing for Prominent Inmates
Prominent or endangered inmates are typically placed in the jail’s QB4 ward for “protected persons” – the so-called “premium block” – in individual cells, rather than the usual three-person units, and isolated during exercise periods for safety concerns.
Positioned on the first floor, the unit has 19 identical units and a reserved outdoor space so inmates are not required to interact with other detainees – even though they remain vulnerable to whistles, jeers and smartphone photos from neighboring units.
Mostly for such concerns, Sarkozy will reportedly be held in the solitary confinement unit, which is in a isolated area. In reality, conditions are largely identical as in the protected unit: the ex-president will be solitary in his room and escorted by a prison officer every time he goes out.
“The objective is to prevent any incidents whatsoever, so we have to stop him from encountering fellow detainees,” a prison source revealed. “The easiest and best approach is to place Nicolas Sarkozy immediately to isolation.”
Accommodation Details
Each of the isolation and protected rooms are the same to those elsewhere in the prison, roughly around 10 square meters, with window blinds intended to reduce interaction, a bed, a small desk, a shower, lavatory, and stationary phone with pre-set numbers.
Sarkozy will be served typical prison food but will additionally have the option to the canteen, where he can buy food to cook for himself, as well as to a individual recreation area, a exercise room and the library. He can rent a fridge for seven euros fifty a per month and a television set for 14.15 euros.
Restricted Visits
In addition to three authorized meetings a per week, he will mainly be alone – an advantage in La Santé, which notwithstanding its recent renovation is running at about twice its planned occupancy of 657 detainees. France’s correctional facilities are the third most overcrowded in the EU bloc.
Prison Supplies
Sarkozy, who has repeatedly maintained his innocence, has declared he will be carrying with him a biography of Jesus and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail but escapes to get retribution.
Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, noted he was also packing hearing protection because prison can be disruptive at night, and multiple sweaters, because rooms can be cold. Sarkozy has stated he is fearless of being in prison and plans to utilize the time to compose a publication.
Uncertain Duration
The duration is unknown, nevertheless, for how long he will actually stay in the prison: his lawyers have submitted for his premature release, and an reviewing judge will have to prove a potential of escaping, further crimes or witness-tampering to warrant his further imprisonment.
France's jurists have indicated he might be released within a month.
