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Perhaps France’s most legendary correctional facility, the La Santé prison – where former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has begun a five year incarceration for criminal conspiracy to raise political donations from the Libyan government – stands as the only remaining prison within the French capital's boundaries.

Located in the southern Montparnasse neighborhood of the capital, it opened in the year 1867 and hosted of a minimum of 40 death penalties, the last in 1972. Partly shut down for refurbishment in 2014, the prison reopened half a decade later and houses more than 1,100 inmates.

Famous past detainees include poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the unauthorized trader Jérôme Kerviel, the government official and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, the businessman and politician Bernard Tapie, the militant from the seventies Carlos the Jackal, and modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel.

Special Treatment for Prominent Inmates

High-profile or at-risk detainees are typically placed in the jail’s QB4 ward for “protected persons” – the dubbed “VIP quarters” – in single cells, rather than the usual three-person rooms, and kept alone during yard time for safety concerns.

Situated on the ground floor, the ward has nineteen similar rooms and a dedicated outdoor space so inmates are not required to mix with fellow inmates – although they remain vulnerable to calls, taunts and cellphone pictures from neighboring units.

Mainly for this reason, Sarkozy is set to be housed in the isolation ward, which is in a distinct block. In reality, circumstances are largely identical as in QB4: the former president will be by himself in his unit and escorted by a corrections officer every time he leaves it.

“The aim is to avoid any problems whatsoever, so we have to prevent him from coming into contact with other prisoners,” a prison source stated. “The most straightforward and most efficient solution is to place Nicolas Sarkozy immediately to solitary confinement.”

Accommodation Details

Both isolation and protected rooms are the same to those elsewhere in the institution, roughly around eleven square meters, with coverings on windows intended to reduce contact, a bed, a writing table, a shower unit, toilet, and fixed-line phone with pre-set numbers.

Sarkozy will receive regular meals but will also have the option to the canteen, where he can purchase items to make his own meals, as well as to a private outdoor space, a gym and the book collection. He can rent a cooling unit for seven euros fifty a month and a television set for 14.15 euros.

Restricted Visits

In addition to three permitted visits a each week, he will mostly be by himself – a privilege in the prison, which in spite of its recent upgrades is operating at roughly twice its planned occupancy of 657 inmates. France’s jails are the third most congested in the European Union.

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy, who has consistently maintained his innocence, has said he will be bringing with him a biography of Jesus and a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, by the author Alexandre Dumas, in which an falsely convicted person is sentenced to prison but escapes to take revenge.

Sarkozy’s attorney, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he was also packing noise blockers because the facility can be noisy at night, and a few jumpers, because rooms can be cold. Sarkozy has commented he is not scared of spending time in jail and plans to use it to author a manuscript.

Release Prospects

The duration is unknown, nevertheless, the length of time he will really stay in the facility: his lawyers have submitted for his early release, and an reviewing judge will must establish a chance of flight, reoffending or influencing testimony to justify his further imprisonment.

France's law specialists have proposed he could be out before a month passes.