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Perhaps the nation's most fabled prison, the La Santé prison – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is now serving a five-year prison sentence for illegal conspiracy to solicit campaign funds from Libya – remains the sole surviving prison inside the Paris city limits.

Located in the southern Montparnasse area of the city, it was inaugurated in 1867 and was the scene of a minimum of 40 capital punishments, the final one in 1972. Partially closed for renovation in 2014, the prison resumed operations half a decade later and accommodates in excess of 1,100 inmates.

Well-known ex- detainees encompass the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel, the government official and wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, the tycoon and politician Bernard Tapie, the terrorist from the 1970s Carlos the Jackal, and talent scout Jean-Luc Brunel.

Protected Wing for Prominent Prisoners

High-profile or vulnerable inmates are usually accommodated in the jail’s QB4 ward for “protected persons” – the dubbed “VIP quarters” – in single cells, rather than the standard three-inmate cells, and separated during yard time for security reasons.

Positioned on the ground floor, the section has 19 identical rooms and a private exercise yard so inmates are not obliged to mingle with other prisoners – although they remain subject to shouts, insults and mobile snapshots from nearby cells.

Mainly for that reason, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the segregated section, which is in a separate wing. Actually, the environment are largely identical as in the QB4 ward: the past leader will be solitary in his cell and supervised by a prison officer each time he goes out.

“The aim is to avert any problems at all, so we need to stop him from meeting fellow detainees,” a source within the facility stated. “The simplest and most effective approach is to assign Nicolas Sarkozy straight to solitary confinement.”

Living Quarters

Each of the isolation and VIP cells are the same to those in other parts in the institution, averaging approximately eleven square meters, with window coverings intended to limit contact, a bed, a writing table, a shower, lavatory, and stationary phone with pre-recorded numbers.

Sarkozy is provided with regular meals but will also have the ability to the commissary, where he can purchase food to cook for himself, as well as to a small solitary outdoor space, a fitness room and the prison library. He can lease a fridge for seven euros fifty a month and a television for €14.15.

Restricted Visits

Besides three allowed visits a per week, he will primarily be on his own – a luxury in the prison, which in spite of its recent renovation is running at approximately twice its planned occupancy of 657 detainees. France’s prisons are the third most congested in the European Union.

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy, who has repeatedly asserted his non-guilt, has stated he will be carrying with him a life story of Jesus and a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an innocent man is sentenced to prison but flees to seek vengeance.

Sarkozy’s legal counsel, Jean-Michel Darrois, noted he was also bringing earplugs because the jail can be disruptive at night, and several sweaters, because units can be cool. Sarkozy has stated he is fearless of serving time in jail and intends to make use of the period to compose a book.

Possible Early Release

It is unclear, however, how long he will in fact be housed in La Santé: his lawyers have lodged for his early release, and an appeals judge will need to demonstrate a risk of escaping, repeat offenses or witness-tampering to justify his ongoing incarceration.

France's jurists have suggested he could be out in less than a month.