Jailhouse Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Confronts Life in Prison
He contested the legal system and justice won.
Sixty days following being handed a 27-year sentence for attempting to “annihilate” the nation's democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally appears destined for incarceration.
Imminent Imprisonment
The adjudicated coup-monger – who has been under residential detention in his residence while a series of court processes and petitions unfold – is broadly anticipated to be jailed in the next few days, during growing talk that he will be sent to a notorious top-security facility.
Previous Statements on Prisoners
Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the right-wing former paratrooper exhibited little sympathy for Brazil’s jailed individuals.
“What’s the need to offer these scoundrels a good life?” he once mused. “They ought to simply be screwed, period. That’s what I reckon.”
At another time, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to finish behind bars, you simply need is not sexual assault, abduction or theft.”
Jail Location Debate
However the prospect of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has appalled supporters, several of whom this week inspected the prison in an obvious effort to discourage the high court from sending him there.
The senator, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was one of the visitors, said he expected the 70-year-old figure to be jailed in the next 10 days and feared his location could be Papuda.
Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s acute intestinal problems – the outcome of a near-fatal assault during the 2018 election race – implied it would be hazardous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His health is extremely serious. He cannot to cope if they move him to Papuda … It could be terrible,” said the senator, who also expressed concern about packed cells and the quality of jail cuisine.
When inspecting Papuda, Lucas remembered observing cells holding forty prisoners: “That is practically one meter squared per prisoner.
“We spoke to the inmates and they complain, of course, of the awful food,” continued the senator.
Backers React
He is not the only voice expressing views ahead of the ex-leader's anticipated imprisonment.
Penning in a major publication, a different supporter, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” end to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” public service and asserted Brazil was about to see “the greatest wrong in its history”.
“It is an injustice that gnaws the souls of many Brazilian citizens,” he stated.
Divided Popular Reaction
That may be accurate due to the significant following Bolsonaro retains on the conservative side. However his expected imprisonment has also warmed the feelings of millions other people who believe he ought to be imprisoned for planning to block the elected leader from assuming office – and additionally conspiring to have him assassinated.
The lawmaker, a representative for the current leader's allied group, commented: “Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a hole. No one wants Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We want him to get proper treatment – but proper treatment while incarcerated. He can’t continue being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”
Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro allies, who have long praising the tough treatment of convicts, had suddenly become aware to their rights. “Only now has the far-right – which has always asserted that civil liberties should not be for offenders – decided to visit a prison to find out what circumstances are truly like,” he remarked.
“Bolsonaro is a criminal,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he merited “humiliating, degrading conduct”.
Likely Jail Facilities
Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now holds about fourteen thousand prisoners, his more likely assigned facility seems to be a nearby prison for police officers and other “special” detainees known as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).
His potential cell are far more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although still a distant from the luxury Bolsonaro had while occupying the spectacular presidential palace, approximately 12 miles away.
Based on reports, the room Bolsonaro could expect to inhabit in Papudinha has about 24 sq metres – approximately the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and features a 130 square foot restroom with a shower and a 12 sq metre terrace. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a set and also a cooler in his quarters as long as they were provided by his loved ones,” sources suggested.
Ideological Reactions
Senator Lucas denounced the talked-about proposal to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of retaliation” on the part of the judicial authority who oversaw Bolsonaro’s legal case and will determine his outcome in the {