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Perhaps France’s most notorious jail, the La Santé prison – where ex-president of France Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five-year jail term for criminal conspiracy to obtain election financing from Libya – stands as the only remaining prison within the city of Paris.

Found in the southern Montparnasse district of the city, it opened in the year 1867 and was the scene of a minimum of 40 capital punishments, the most recent in 1972. Partially closed for renovation in 2014, the institution resumed operations five years later and holds in excess of 1,100 detainees.

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

Protected Wing for Prominent Prisoners

Prominent or vulnerable detainees are usually accommodated in the prison's QB4 section for “individuals at risk” – the dubbed “VIP section” – in individual cells, not the standard three-person cells, and isolated during yard time for protection purposes.

Located on the initial level, the section has 19 identical cells and a private exercise yard so inmates are not obliged to mingle with other prisoners – although they remain exposed to whistles, jeers and mobile snapshots from neighboring units.

Primarily for that reason, Sarkozy will reportedly be held in the isolation ward, which is in a separate wing. In reality, the environment are very similar as in the QB4 ward: the past leader will be solitary in his room and supervised by a guard whenever he goes out.

“The goal is to prevent any incidents whatsoever, so we must prevent him from encountering other prisoners,” a source within the facility commented. “The easiest and most effective solution is to send Nicolas Sarkozy straight to solitary confinement.”

Cell Conditions

Both solitary and protected cells are the same to those elsewhere in the institution, roughly about 10 square meters, with window coverings intended to reduce interaction, a bed, a writing table, a shower unit, WC, and landline telephone with authorized contacts only.

Sarkozy will be served standard meals but will also have the option to the prison store, where he can purchase food to cook for himself, as well as to a individual recreation area, a gym and the library. He can lease a fridge for seven euros fifty a per month and a television for fourteen euros fifteen.

Limited Social Contact

Apart from three allowed visits a each week, he will mainly be alone – a privilege in the prison, which in spite of its recent renovation is operating at about twice its designed capacity of 657 detainees. The country's prisons are the third most packed in the European Union.

Prison Supplies

Sarkozy, who has steadfastly protested his innocence, has declared he will be bringing 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 given a sentence to prison but breaks out to seek vengeance.

Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, noted he was also taking noise blockers because the jail can be noisy at night, and multiple sweaters, because rooms can be cold. Sarkozy has said he is fearless of serving time in prison and plans to use it to author a book.

Release Prospects

It remains uncertain, nevertheless, for how long he will in fact remain in the prison: his lawyers have lodged for his premature release, and an appeals judge will have to prove a risk of escaping, repeat offenses or interfering with witnesses to validate his continued detention.

French jurists have indicated he could be out in less than a month.