Jailhouse Surprise: The Ex-President Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars

He contested justice and justice prevailed.

A couple of months following getting a quarter-century plus sentence for seeking to “destroy” Brazil’s democratic institutions, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro now seems jail-bound.

Expected Jailing

The convicted plotter – who had been under house arrest in his residence while a series of legal procedures and appeals unfold – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the near future, amid mounting rumors that he will be moved to a well-known top-security penitentiary.

Historical Comments on Inmates

During Bolsonaro’s long public life, the conservative former soldier displayed minimal mercy for the country's inmates.

“Why should we provide these scoundrels a good life?” he once mused. “They deserve to be fucked, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro declared: “Unless you desire to wind up behind bars, the only thing required is not sexual assault, abduction or rob.”

Prison Location Debate

However the possibility of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, several of whom this week toured the facility in an obvious bid to discourage the supreme court from transferring him there.

Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, said he anticipated the elderly leader to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and feared his assigned prison could be Papuda.

He asserted Bolsonaro’s acute digestive problems – the outcome of a almost deadly assault during the 2018 presidential political campaign – meant it would be dangerous to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is very grave. He will not be able to manage if they send him to Papuda … It would be awful,” he commented, who also worried about overcrowded cells and the quality of jail cuisine.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas recalled witnessing cells holding four dozen prisoners: “That’s practically one meter squared per prisoner.

“We conversed to the inmates and they protest, naturally, of the horrible food,” remarked the senator.

Allies Speak Out

Lucas is not the sole person speaking out ahead of the one-time head of state's anticipated detention.

Authoring in a prominent daily, a different supporter, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “severe” finale to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” public service and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the biggest unfairness in its past”.

“It is an wrong that gnaws the spirits of countless people in Brazil,” he stated.

Mixed General Reaction

This could be accurate due to the significant following Bolsonaro retains on the right-wing. However his anticipated imprisonment has also gladdened the hearts of numerous other people who think he deserves to be imprisoned for conspiring to block his successor from becoming president – and also plotting to have him murdered.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the sitting administration's allied group, said: “Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be sent in a dark cell. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be put in segregation. Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to lie on concrete. We want him to get proper care – but respectful treatment while incarcerated. He must not persist being his own prison warden for his whole life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro allies, who have for a long time celebrating the severe handling of convicts, had abruptly woken up to their rights. “Only now has the far-right – which has always asserted that civil liberties should not be for lawbreakers – decided to inspect a penitentiary to find out what conditions are truly like,” he remarked.

“He is a lawbreaker,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he merited “shameful, insulting conduct”.

Potential Prison Environment

In spite of rumors that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which currently houses about thousands of detainees, his more likely assigned facility looks to be a nearby penitentiary for officers and other “special” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

The accommodations are much more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although still a far cry from the comfort Bolsonaro experienced while occupying the impressive leader's home, about a short distance away.

As per sources, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha has about 24 sq metres – approximately the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and includes a 12 square meter WC with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre veranda. “Bolsonaro would be allowed to have a TV and also a small fridge in his quarters as long as they were provided by his loved ones,” sources indicated.

Ideological Reactions

The lawmaker denounced the talked-about idea to send the former leader to Papuda as “a type of revenge” on the part of the presiding magistrate who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his outcome in the {