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Maybe the nation's most fabled correctional facility, the La Santé prison – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is now serving a five year jail term for illegal conspiracy to solicit political donations from Libya – is the sole surviving prison within the city of Paris.

Found in the southern Montparnasse district of the city, it first opened in 1867 and was the scene of no fewer than 40 death penalties, the most recent in 1972. Partly shut down for upgrades in 2014, the institution resumed operations half a decade later and houses in excess of 1,100 inmates.

Well-known past inmates comprise the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the financial trader Jérôme Kerviel, the civil servant and collaborator with the Nazis Maurice Papon, the businessman and politician Bernard Tapie, the terrorist from the 1970s Carlos the Jackal, and modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

VIP Quarters for Prominent Prisoners

Notable or at-risk detainees are typically placed in the prison's QB4 ward for “individuals at risk” – the dubbed “VIP quarters” – in single cells, not the typical three-inmate cells, and separated during exercise periods for protection purposes.

Positioned on the first floor, the section has a set of uniform units and a reserved outdoor space so prisoners are not forced to interact with other detainees – although they are still subject to shouts, jeers and mobile snapshots from neighboring units.

Primarily for such concerns, Sarkozy is expected to be placed in the segregated section, which is in a separate wing. Actually, the environment are very similar as in the protected unit: the former president will be by himself in his cell and accompanied by a prison officer each time he exits.

“The aim is to avoid any problems at all, so we must block him from encountering fellow detainees,” a prison source stated. “The simplest and most efficient approach is to place Nicolas Sarkozy directly to isolation.”

Living Quarters

Both solitary and protected units are the same to those elsewhere in the institution, measuring about 10 square meters, with window coverings intended to reduce communication, a sleeping cot, a compact desk, a shower unit, toilet, and stationary phone with pre-recorded numbers.

Sarkozy will receive standard meals but will also have the option to the prison store, where he can purchase items to make his own meals, as well as to a small solitary outdoor space, a exercise room and the prison library. He can lease a cooling unit for seven euros fifty a monthly and a TV for €14.15.

Limited Social Contact

In addition to three permitted visits a per week, he will mainly be on his own – a luxury in the facility, which despite its modernization is running at roughly twice its intended capacity of 657 detainees. The country's jails are the third most overcrowded in the EU bloc.

Prison Supplies

Sarkozy, who has repeatedly protested his innocence, has said he will be carrying with him a life story of Jesus and a edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, in which an falsely convicted person is sentenced to jail but escapes to take revenge.

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was additionally bringing noise blockers because the facility can be loud at night, and several sweaters, because units can be cool. Sarkozy has said he is fearless of being in prison and aims to use it to author a manuscript.

Possible Early Release

It is unclear, nevertheless, how long he will in fact be housed in the prison: his legal team have submitted for his conditional release, and an appeals judge will need to demonstrate a risk of escaping, reoffending or interfering with witnesses to validate his ongoing incarceration.

France's legal experts have indicated he could be out within a month.