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Maybe France’s most fabled jail, the La Santé prison – in which former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has started a five-year incarceration for criminal conspiracy to obtain campaign funds from the Libyan government – is the sole surviving prison inside the Paris city limits.

Situated in the south part of Montparnasse area of the city, it opened in 1867 and hosted of at least 40 executions, the final one in 1972. Partially closed for renovation in 2014, the prison resumed operations five years later and holds in excess of 1,100 prisoners.

Well-known ex- prisoners comprise the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the unauthorized trader Jérôme Kerviel, the government official and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, the entrepreneur and politician Bernard Tapie, the terrorist from the 1970s Carlos the Jackal, and model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

Protected Wing for Notable Prisoners

Notable or vulnerable inmates are usually placed in the jail’s QB4 ward for “individuals at risk” – the often called “VIP section” – in individual cells, not the usual three-inmate rooms, and isolated during yard time for security reasons.

Located on the first floor, the ward has nineteen similar rooms and a reserved outdoor space so inmates are not required to mingle with other detainees – while they are still vulnerable to whistles, insults and mobile snapshots from nearby cells.

Mostly for that reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the segregated section, which is in a isolated area. Actually, circumstances are very similar as in QB4: the former president will be solitary in his room and accompanied by a prison officer whenever he goes out.

“The aim is to avert any issues whatsoever, so we have to stop him from encountering fellow detainees,” a source within the facility commented. “The most straightforward and most effective method is to place Nicolas Sarkozy straight to solitary confinement.”

Accommodation Details

Both solitary and VIP cells are the same to those elsewhere in the prison, measuring approximately 10 square meters, with window blinds intended to limit interaction, a bed, a compact desk, a shower, toilet, and stationary phone with pre-set numbers.

Sarkozy will be served typical prison food but will additionally have the ability to the commissary, where he can buy groceries to cook for himself, as well as to a individual recreation area, a exercise room and the book collection. He can lease a refrigerator for €7.50 a month and a television set for fourteen euros fifteen.

Restricted Visits

Apart from three permitted visits a per week, he will mainly be by himself – an advantage in the prison, which notwithstanding its recent upgrades is running at approximately twice its intended capacity of 657 detainees. France’s jails are the third most packed in the European Union.

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy, who has consistently maintained his innocence, has declared he will be taking with him a life story of Jesus and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an wrongly accused individual is given a sentence to prison but flees to get retribution.

Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was also bringing noise blockers because the jail can be noisy at during the night, and several sweaters, because units can be cool. Sarkozy has said he is unafraid of spending time in jail and plans to use it to author a manuscript.

Possible Early Release

It remains uncertain, however, the length of time he will really stay in the facility: his legal team have submitted for his early release, and an reviewing judge will need to demonstrate a risk of escaping, further crimes or influencing testimony to validate his continued detention.

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