Jailhouse Shock: The FormerPresident Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars

He battled the legal system and the legal system won.

Two months subsequent to getting a twenty-seven-year sentence for trying to “eradicate” the nation's democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally seems destined for incarceration.

Anticipated Incarceration

The convicted coup-monger – who's been under residential detention in his mansion while a set of judicial steps and appeals play out – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the near future, amidst growing talk that he will be sent to a infamous maximum security penitentiary.

Previous Remarks on Inmates

Over Bolsonaro’s 40-year public life, the far-right ex- soldier displayed minimal sympathy for Brazil’s prison population.

“Why should we provide these scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be messed, period. That’s what I reckon.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to finish behind bars, the only thing required is to avoid rape, abduction or theft.”

Prison Destination Debate

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has horrified allies, a group of four this week visited the complex in an seeming attempt to dissuade the high court from sending him there.

Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was among that group, claimed he anticipated the septuagenarian politician to be jailed in the next 10 days and feared his destination could be Papuda.

He asserted Bolsonaro’s serious intestinal ailments – the result of a life-threatening assault during the 2018 presidential presidential campaign – implied it would be hazardous to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is highly critical. He will not be able to manage if they send him to Papuda … It will be dreadful,” said the senator, who also expressed concern about cramped cells and the standard of prison meals.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas noted witnessing cells accommodating forty detainees: “That’s practically one square meter per prisoner.

“We conversed to the prisoners and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the awful food,” remarked the senator.

Supporters Voice Concerns

Lucas is not the only voice expressing views prior to the ex-leader's predicted detention.

Authoring in a leading publication, a different supporter, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” public service and alleged Brazil was about to see “the largest wrong in its history”.

“This is an unfairness that erodes the souls of many Brazilian citizens,” Wajngarten wrote.

Mixed Public Opinion

It is possibly correct given the significant backing Bolsonaro retains on the Brazilian right. Yet his expected jailing has also warmed the hearts of millions other people who feel he ought to be jailed for plotting to stop his successor from assuming office – and also plotting to have him murdered.

The lawmaker, a representative for the current administration's Workers’ party, said: “No one desires Bolsonaro to be put in a dark cell. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to obtain dignified handling – but dignified care while incarcerated. He can’t persist being his own prison warden for his entire life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years celebrating the tough treatment of convicts, had suddenly realized to their privileges. “Only now has the far-right – which has consistently claimed that human rights are not for offenders – opted to inspect a jail to find out what situations are truly like,” he said.

“He is a lawbreaker,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he earned “shameful, degrading treatment”.

Potential Prison Environment

In spite of speculation that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which currently houses about 14,000 detainees, his probable location seems to be a close penitentiary for officers and other “particular” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

Its cells are considerably more comfortable than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a far cry from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the stunning official residence, approximately 20 kilometers away.

Based on reports, the room Bolsonaro could expect to inhabit in Papudinha is about 24 square meters – roughly the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and features a 12 square meter WC with a water facility and a 12 sq metre balcony. “The ex-president might be authorized to have a television and also a minibar in his quarters as long as they were supplied by his relatives,” the report stated.

Partisan Reactions

Senator Lucas criticized the speculated plan to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of revenge” on the part of the supreme court judge who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his fate in the {