Jailhouse Shock: The Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Confronts Life Behind Bars
He fought the law and the law triumphed.
Two months subsequent to being handed a quarter-century plus sentence for seeking to “eradicate” the nation's democratic institutions, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally appears jail-bound.
Expected Incarceration
The adjudicated plotter – who's been living under house arrest in his estate while a number of court processes and appeals proceed – is broadly anticipated to be incarcerated in the coming days, amidst mounting talk that he will be sent to a well-known high-security penitentiary.
Previous Remarks on Inmates
Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year political career, the right-wing former soldier showed scant sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.
“Why should we give those lowlifes a good life?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be fucked, period. That's my opinion.”
In another instance, Bolsonaro stated: “If you don’t want to wind up behind bars, the only thing required is not sexual assault, kidnap or rob.”
Jail Destination Discussion
Yet the idea of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has appalled supporters, four of whom this week inspected the complex in an seeming bid to prevent the high court from banishing him there.
Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was one of the visitors, said he expected the elderly figure to be incarcerated in the coming fortnight and feared his location could be Papuda.
He asserted Bolsonaro’s severe gut issues – the outcome of a almost deadly stabbing during the 2018 political campaign – meant it would be dangerous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He will not be able to manage if they send him to Papuda … It will be awful,” he commented, who also worried about overcrowded cells and the condition of inmate food.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas noted observing cells holding four dozen prisoners: “It's almost one square meter per prisoner.
“We conversed to the prisoners and they grumble, unsurprisingly, of the horrible food,” continued the senator.
Allies React
Lucas is not the lone figure expressing views ahead of the former president’s anticipated incarceration.
Penning in a major newspaper, a different supporter, the ex- government official Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “brutal” end to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” public service and claimed Brazil was about to see “the greatest unfairness in its history”.
“It is an injustice that erodes the souls of millions Brazilian citizens,” Wajngarten wrote.
Varied General Reaction
It is possibly accurate due to the considerable following Bolsonaro holds on the conservative side. Yet his anticipated imprisonment has also warmed the hearts of many other people who think he should be incarcerated for planning to prevent his successor from taking power – and additionally conspiring to have him killed.
The lawmaker, a politician for the current administration's Workers’ party, commented: “Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be put in a dungeon. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be put in solitary confinement. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We wish him to get respectful care – but respectful treatment in prison. He can’t continue being his self-appointed guard for his entire life.”
The congressman noted how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years celebrating the harsh conditions of prisoners, had abruptly realized to their rights. “Only now has the far-right – which has always asserted that civil liberties were not for criminals – chosen to visit a jail to discover what conditions are truly like,” he said.
“The former president is a lawbreaker,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, demeaning treatment”.
Likely Incarceration Environment
Regardless of speculation that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which currently houses about fourteen thousand inmates, his probable location looks to be a nearby penitentiary for police officers and other “special” inmates called Papudinha (Small Papuda).
The accommodations are considerably more pleasant than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a world away from the comfort Bolsonaro experienced while residing in the stunning presidential palace, around a short distance away.
As per sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could likely inhabit in Papudinha measures about 24 square meters – about the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and contains a 12 square meter bathroom with a shower and a 130 square foot terrace. “He could be authorized to have a television and even a minibar in his cell as long as they were provided by his family,” the report indicated.
Ideological Comments
The lawmaker denounced the rumoured plan to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a form of revenge” on the part of the supreme court judge who oversaw Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will rule on his future in the {