Jailhouse Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Confronts Life in Prison
He fought justice and the law won.
Two months after being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for seeking to “eradicate” Brazil’s democracy, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally appears jail-bound.
Imminent Imprisonment
The adjudicated plotter – who has been subject to home confinement in his mansion while a set of judicial steps and challenges proceed – is largely predicted to be jailed in the next few days, during increasing talk that he will be transferred to a infamous top-security facility.
Past Statements on Convicts
During Bolsonaro’s 40-year political career, the conservative ex- paratrooper showed little sympathy for the country's inmates.
“Why should we give these lowlifes a comfortable existence?” he previously wondered. “They should just get fucked, end of story. That's my opinion.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro declared: “Unless you desire to wind up there, the only thing required is not rape, kidnap or rob.”
Jail Facility Discussion
However the idea of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has horrified allies, several of whom this week visited the prison in an seeming bid to dissuade the supreme court from sending him there.
Senator Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was among that group, said he predicted the septuagenarian leader to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and feared his assigned prison could be Papuda.
The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe gut problems – the consequence of a almost deadly stabbing during the 2018 presidential presidential campaign – meant it would be hazardous to keep the ex-leader there. “His health is highly critical. He will not be able to cope if they move him to Papuda … It could be awful,” he commented, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the quality of jail cuisine.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas remembered witnessing cells accommodating four dozen detainees: “That’s virtually one square metre per detainee.
“We talked to the prisoners and they grumble, of course, of the terrible meals,” remarked the senator.
Backers Speak Out
He is not the only voice speaking out ahead of the one-time head of state's expected incarceration.
Writing in a major daily, another ally, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “brutal” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and claimed Brazil was about to witness “the greatest unfairness in its record”.
“This is an unfairness that eats away the spirits of countless Brazilian citizens,” the former minister said.
Mixed General Response
This could be true considering the significant support Bolsonaro holds on the right-wing. However his predicted jailing has also warmed the feelings of numerous other people who believe he ought to be jailed for conspiring to block his successor from becoming president – and additionally scheming to have him killed.
The lawmaker, a representative for the incumbent administration's political party, said: “Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be put in a dark cell. No one desires Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. Not a soul desires Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We wish him to obtain dignified handling – but respectful treatment in prison. He must not persist being his own prison warden for his entire life.”
Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time celebrating the severe conditions of convicts, had unexpectedly woken up to their privileges. “Just now has the far-right – which has repeatedly claimed that basic rights should not be for criminals – opted to inspect a jail to discover what situations are truly like,” he stated.
“He is a lawbreaker,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, insulting treatment”.
Possible Incarceration Environment
Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which now houses about thousands of prisoners, his more likely destination seems to be a adjacent penitentiary for police officers and other “special” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Small Papuda).
His potential cell are far more adequate than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while residing in the spectacular presidential palace, approximately 20 kilometers away.
Based on information, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – approximately the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and features a 130 square foot restroom with a water facility and a 12 square meter terrace. “He could be authorized to have a TV and even a cooler in his room as long as they were donated by his relatives,” sources indicated.
Ideological Responses
He denounced the speculated idea to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “an act of payback” on the part of the supreme court judge who oversaw Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his outcome in the {