Located at 42 rue de la Santé in Paris's 14th arrondissement , the Santé Prison is the last large intramural prison in the capital. Inaugurated in 1867, it embodies more than 150 years of prison history andsocial struggles. In 1861, architect Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer was commissioned to draw up plans for a new prison.
Before that, on the same site, stood a "maison de la santé" (health center), built on the orders of Anne of Austria. The decision to build this prison was made because of the need to demolish the Madelonnettes prison, with La Santé becoming the eleventh prison in the capital. The cells, initially numbering 500, were increased to 1,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, measuring 4 meters long, 2.5 meters wide, and 3 meters high, with nearly 2,000 inmates at that time.
The facility is undergoing renovations and will be partially closed from 2014 to 2019. The Santé prison has housed many famous inmates, as the imprisonment of public figures is a specific feature of the Santé, in a particular section. This section has notably housed Jacques Mesrine, Bernard Tapie, Guillaume Apollinaire, Yvan Colonna, Jérôme Kerviel, Koba LaD and, more recently, Nicolas Sarkozy.
The Santé prison is not open to the public or visitors for obvious reasons, so it is only possible to see its high walls from the street.
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