Jail Diary

It is not a bad idea, it appears, if top notch politicians get incarcerated, at least for some days, so as to understand what prisons, or those that are now euphemistically called correctional homes, actually mean for an inmate.

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In fact, it is exactly this word that former French President Nicolas Sarkozy used to describe his recent 20-day stint in the prison of La Santé in Paris, in a new book he penned. Ironically, ‘La Sante’ in French means ‘health’ or ‘wellness’, the implication being that the mental health of the prison’s inmates would improve after staying there. Sarkozy called this prison a noisy, harsh “all-grey” world of “inhuman violence.” The book is notable not only for its vivid, graphic account of the appalling conditions of the prison, but also the former President’s surprising advocacy of a new political line for his conservative party to close ranks with France’s Far-Right political outfit. The shift in his political strategy runs counter to the aims of “republican front” or parties that have traditionally kept the Far-Right out of power.