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Maybe the nation's most notorious correctional facility, the La Santé prison – in which former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five year prison sentence for illegal conspiracy to raise campaign funds from Libya – is the last remaining prison inside the French capital's boundaries.

Found in the south part of Montparnasse district of the city, it opened in the year 1867 and was the scene of no fewer than 40 executions, the last in 1972. Partially closed for refurbishment in 2014, the facility reopened five years later and houses over 1,100 detainees.

Renowned former detainees comprise poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the unauthorized trader Jérôme Kerviel, the public servant and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the businessman and political figure Bernard Tapie, the 70s terrorist Carlos the Jackal, and talent scout Jean-Luc Brunel.

Protected Wing for High-Profile Inmates

Notable or vulnerable inmates are typically placed in the jail’s QB4 section for “protected persons” – the so-called “VIP quarters” – in solitary cells, not the usual three-person units, and isolated during yard time for protection purposes.

Positioned on the first floor, the section has nineteen similar cells and a dedicated outdoor space so inmates are not obliged to mingle with other prisoners – while they remain subject to whistles, taunts and cellphone pictures from neighboring units.

Mainly for this reason, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the isolation ward, which is in a isolated area. Practically, the environment are very similar as in QB4: the past leader will be by himself in his room and accompanied by a prison officer every time he exits.

“The goal is to avert any problems at all, so we have to prevent him from coming into contact with any inmates,” a source within the facility commented. “The simplest and most effective approach is to assign Nicolas Sarkozy directly to isolation.”

Accommodation Details

Both isolation and protected units are the same to those elsewhere in the prison, measuring approximately 10 square meters, with window blinds created to limit communication, a sleeping cot, a compact desk, a shower unit, lavatory, and stationary phone with authorized contacts only.

Sarkozy will be served typical prison food but will additionally have the ability to the canteen, where he can buy food to make his own meals, as well as to a small solitary exercise yard, a fitness room and the library. He can pay for a fridge for seven euros fifty a monthly and a TV for 14.15 euros.

Restricted Visits

Besides three permitted visits a week, he will primarily be on his own – a privilege in La Santé, which despite its modernization is operating at roughly double its planned occupancy of 657 prisoners. The country's correctional facilities are the third most congested in the EU.

Items Brought

Sarkozy, who has repeatedly protested his non-guilt, has declared he will be bringing with him a life story of Jesus Christ and a version of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an wrongly accused individual is sentenced to prison but escapes to take revenge.

Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, mentioned he was additionally taking hearing protection because prison can be noisy at night, and multiple sweaters, because rooms can be cold. Sarkozy has commented he is not scared of serving time in prison and plans to make use of the period to compose a book.

Release Prospects

It is unclear, nevertheless, the length of time he will actually be housed in the facility: his attorneys have submitted for his premature release, and an reviewing judge will need to demonstrate a chance of escaping, repeat offenses or interfering with witnesses to justify his continued detention.

France's law specialists have indicated he might be released within a month.