Jailhouse Shock: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Confronts Time in Prison

He contested the law and the legal system prevailed.

Two months subsequent to receiving a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “destroy” the nation's political system, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally appears jail-bound.

Expected Imprisonment

The adjudicated plotter – who's been living under home confinement in his mansion while a number of court processes and challenges unfold – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the near future, amid mounting speculation that he will be moved to a well-known maximum security prison.

Historical Remarks on Inmates

Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade time in politics, the far-right former paratrooper exhibited minimal compassion for the country's prison population.

“Why should we give those scoundrels a good life?” he once mused. “They should just get messed, period. That's my view.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro stated: “If you don’t want to wind up in prison, all you have to do is to avoid sexual assault, abduction or theft.”

Prison Facility Speculation

However the prospect of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, four of whom this week toured the facility in an seeming bid to discourage the high court from transferring him there.

The senator, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was among that group, claimed he expected the 70-year-old leader to be incarcerated in the following week and a half and feared his location could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s acute intestinal ailments – the consequence of a life-threatening stabbing during the 2018 election race – meant it would be hazardous to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is very grave. He won’t be able to cope if they send him to Papuda … It would be awful,” he commented, who also voiced anxiety about cramped cells and the condition of prison meals.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas recalled seeing cells containing 40 inmates: “That’s almost one meter squared per detainee.

“We spoke to the convicts and they complain, unsurprisingly, of the terrible meals,” continued the senator.

Backers React

The senator isn't the only voice voicing opinions ahead of the ex-leader's expected detention.

Penning in a leading daily, another ally, the former communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “brutal” finale to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” public service and asserted Brazil was about to see “the greatest unfairness in its past”.

“It represents an injustice that erodes the hearts of countless of Brazilians,” Wajngarten wrote.

Varied Popular Response

This could be true given the substantial support Bolsonaro maintains on the Brazilian right. But his expected incarceration has also warmed the feelings of numerous individuals who feel he deserves to be jailed for plotting to block the incoming president from taking power – and even conspiring to have him assassinated.

Reimont Otoni, a representative for the sitting leader's allied group, stated: “Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be sent in solitary confinement. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We want him to receive respectful treatment – but proper handling while incarcerated. He cannot persist being his personal jailer for his whole life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years celebrating the harsh treatment of prisoners, had suddenly realized to their privileges. “Only now has the far-right – which has always claimed that civil liberties are not for lawbreakers – opted to tour a prison to learn what conditions are really like,” he said.

“Bolsonaro is a criminal,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he deserved “degrading, demeaning conduct”.

Likely Prison Facilities

In spite of rumors that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which presently houses about 14,000 prisoners, his expected assigned facility seems to be a nearby prison for police officers and other “special” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

The accommodations are far more comfortable than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro had while living in the spectacular presidential palace, around 20 kilometers away.

Based on sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could expect to reside in in Papudinha has about 24 sq metres – roughly the dimensions of two parking spaces – and includes a 12 sq metre WC with a water facility and a 130 square foot veranda. “Bolsonaro would be allowed to have a television and additionally a cooler in his cell as long as they were provided by his relatives,” information stated.

Ideological Reactions

The lawmaker criticized the speculated proposal to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a type of payback” on the part of the presiding magistrate who oversaw Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will decide his fate in the {

Matthew Jordan
Matthew Jordan

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