What Awaits Sarkozy in the La Santé Facility and What Belongings Has He Taken?
Possibly the nation's most legendary jail, La Santé – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has begun a five year jail term for criminal conspiracy to solicit political donations from Libya – stands as the last remaining prison inside the city of Paris.
Found in the southern Montparnasse neighborhood 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. Partly shut down for upgrades in 2014, the prison reopened half a decade later and holds over 1,100 inmates.
Renowned past prisoners include poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the entrepreneur and political figure Bernard Tapie, the terrorist from the 1970s Carlos the Jackal, and modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
Special Treatment for Prominent Inmates
Notable or at-risk inmates are usually accommodated in the prison's QB4 ward for “protected persons” – the so-called “premium block” – in individual cells, not the usual three-inmate rooms, and kept alone during exercise periods for security reasons.
Located on the first floor, the unit has nineteen similar units and a reserved outdoor space so prisoners are not required to mix with fellow inmates – while they remain vulnerable to shouts, insults and cellphone pictures from adjacent cells.
Mostly for this reason, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the segregated section, which is in a isolated area. Actually, circumstances are largely identical as in the protected unit: the ex-president will be alone in his unit and supervised by a guard each time he leaves it.
“The objective is to avoid any problems at all, so we have to prevent him from coming into contact with any inmates,” a source within the facility revealed. “The most straightforward and best approach is to assign Nicolas Sarkozy directly to segregation.”
Accommodation Details
Each of the solitary and protected cells are similar to those in other parts in the prison, measuring about 10 sq metres, with coverings on windows designed to restrict communication, a bed, a small desk, a shower, WC, and fixed-line phone with pre-recorded numbers.
Sarkozy is provided with typical prison food but will also have the option to the canteen, where he can purchase food to prepare himself, as well as to a small solitary exercise yard, a gym and the prison library. He can pay for a refrigerator for seven euros fifty a per month and a TV for 14.15 euros.
Controlled Interactions
Apart from three authorized meetings a per week, he will primarily be on his own – a privilege in the prison, which in spite of its recent upgrades is functioning at roughly twice its designed capacity of 657 inmates. France’s jails are the third most overcrowded in the EU bloc.
Items Brought
Sarkozy, who has repeatedly maintained his non-guilt, has stated he will be carrying with him a account of Jesus Christ and a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an falsely convicted person is given a sentence to prison but flees to take revenge.
Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was additionally packing noise blockers because the jail can be disruptive at nighttime, and a few jumpers, because cells can be cool. Sarkozy has said he is fearless of being in jail and plans to make use of the period to compose a book.
Release Prospects
It is unclear, though, how long he will in fact be housed in the facility: his legal team have already filed for his premature release, and an appeals judge will have to prove a potential of escaping, further crimes or witness-tampering to warrant his continued detention.
French legal experts have suggested he could be out in less than a month.