Jailhouse Surprise: The Ex-President Bolsonaro Confronts Life Behind Bars
He fought justice and justice prevailed.
Two months after receiving a twenty-seven-year sentence for seeking to “eradicate” the nation's democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally appears destined for incarceration.
Imminent Imprisonment
The convicted plotter – who had been under home confinement in his estate while a number of court processes and appeals proceed – is largely predicted to be incarcerated in the next few days, amidst increasing talk that he will be sent to a well-known top-security facility.
Historical Statements on Convicts
Throughout Bolsonaro’s long political career, the conservative ex- paratrooper displayed scant compassion for the country's prison population.
“For what reason must we provide those dirtbags a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They should just get fucked, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to finish behind bars, all you have to do is to avoid rape, abduction or rob.”
Incarceration Destination Discussion
Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, four of whom this week visited the prison in an seeming attempt to discourage the judiciary from banishing him there.
Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was part of that quartet, said he predicted the elderly figure to be incarcerated in the following week and a half and feared his assigned prison could be Papuda.
The senator argued Bolsonaro’s serious digestive problems – the result of a almost deadly stabbing during the 2018 presidential election race – signified it would be risky to keep the former president there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He won’t be able to handle it if they move him to Papuda … It could be dreadful,” he commented, who also voiced anxiety about cramped cells and the quality of inmate food.
While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells accommodating forty inmates: “It's practically one meter squared per detainee.
“We talked to the inmates and they grumble, naturally, of the horrible food,” remarked the senator.
Backers Voice Concerns
The senator isn't the sole person expressing views ahead of the former president’s expected incarceration.
Writing in a major newspaper, one more backer, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “severe” end to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to witness “the greatest political injustice in its record”.
“It represents an wrong that eats away the spirits of many people in Brazil,” Wajngarten wrote.
Varied Popular Opinion
This could be accurate given the considerable backing Bolsonaro retains on the Brazilian right. But his predicted imprisonment has also gladdened the hearts of millions other people who think he deserves to be imprisoned for planning to block the incoming president from taking power – and also plotting to have him murdered.
Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the sitting administration's allied group, stated: “Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be put in a hole. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be put in solitary confinement. No one wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to obtain respectful treatment – but dignified handling in prison. He cannot continue being his personal jailer for his entire life.”
He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have spent years applauding the severe treatment of inmates, had suddenly become aware to their entitlements. “Only now has the extreme right – which has repeatedly asserted that human rights should not be for lawbreakers – opted to inspect a penitentiary to discover what situations are actually like,” he said.
“He is a lawbreaker,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he earned “shameful, degrading handling”.
Potential Jail Environment
Regardless of speculation that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which presently holds about 14,000 prisoners, his more likely destination seems to be a adjacent jail for police officers and other “special” prisoners known as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).
His potential cell are considerably more comfortable than those in the larger jail, although nevertheless a far cry from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while occupying the impressive leader's home, approximately 20 kilometers away.
As per sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate inhabit in Papudinha is about 24 sq metres – roughly the area of a couple of car spots – and features a 12 sq metre WC with a bathing area and a 130 square foot terrace. “The ex-president might be authorized to have a television and also a small fridge in his cell as long as they were provided by his loved ones,” the report indicated.
Partisan Comments
He criticized the talked-about plan to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a form of payback” on the part of the judicial authority who oversaw Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will determine his future in the {