Jailhouse Surprise: The FormerPresident Bolsonaro Confronts Time in Prison
He fought the legal system and the legal system triumphed.
A couple of months subsequent to receiving a twenty-seven-year sentence for trying to “annihilate” Brazil’s democratic institutions, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro at last appears jail-bound.
Anticipated Jailing
The convicted instigator – who has been living under residential detention in his estate while a number of judicial steps and challenges proceed – is largely predicted to be jailed in the near future, amid mounting speculation that he will be sent to a notorious top-security facility.
Historical Remarks on Prisoners
Over Bolsonaro’s long time in politics, the conservative ex- soldier exhibited little sympathy for Brazil’s prison population.
“Why should we provide those lowlifes a good life?” he once pondered. “They deserve to be fucked, full-fucking-stop. That's my view.”
In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “Should you not wish to finish behind bars, you simply need is to avoid rape, abduction or theft.”
Incarceration Location Speculation
Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, four of whom this week inspected the complex in an seeming effort to prevent the high court from sending him there.
Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, claimed he predicted the septuagenarian figure to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and feared his assigned prison could be Papuda.
Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe gut ailments – the consequence of a almost deadly knife attack during the last presidential campaign – signified it would be hazardous to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He will not be able to cope if they send him to Papuda … It would be dreadful,” he added, who also voiced anxiety about packed cells and the quality of inmate food.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled observing cells accommodating forty inmates: “That’s virtually one square metre per prisoner.
“We conversed to the prisoners and they protest, of course, of the horrible cuisine,” continued the senator.
Allies Voice Concerns
Lucas is not the only voice expressing views ahead of the one-time head of state's anticipated imprisonment.
Authoring in a major newspaper, another ally, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “brutal” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” public service and claimed Brazil was about to experience “the largest unfairness in its record”.
“It represents an injustice that gnaws the hearts of countless people in Brazil,” Wajngarten wrote.
Divided Public Opinion
It is possibly accurate given the substantial backing Bolsonaro maintains on the Brazilian right. But his predicted incarceration has also pleased the spirits of millions other people who feel he should be imprisoned for conspiring to block the elected leader from becoming president – and additionally conspiring to have him murdered.
Congressman Otoni, a politician for the sitting president's political party, said: “Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. No one desires Bolsonaro to be put in isolation. No one desires Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We desire him to receive proper treatment – but dignified handling behind bars. He must not persist being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”
Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro allies, who have long celebrating the severe handling of convicts, had unexpectedly become aware to their rights. “Only now has the far-right – which has repeatedly argued that human rights should not be for lawbreakers – decided to tour a prison to find out what circumstances are really like,” he said.
“The former president is a lawbreaker,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he earned “humiliating, insulting handling”.
Possible Incarceration Facilities
In spite of talk that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which currently houses about thousands of inmates, his expected assigned facility appears to be a adjacent jail for police officers and other “particular” inmates called Papudinha (Minor Papuda).
The accommodations are much more comfortable than those in the larger jail, although still a far cry from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while living in the spectacular official residence, around a short distance away.
According to sources, the room Bolsonaro could expect to reside in in Papudinha is about 24 sq metres – approximately the size of two parking spaces – and includes a 130 square foot restroom with a water facility and a 12 square meter balcony. “The ex-president might be authorized to have a set and also a minibar in his quarters as long as they were provided by his family,” sources indicated.
Ideological Comments
The lawmaker criticized the rumoured proposal to send the former leader to Papuda as “an act of payback” on the part of the presiding magistrate who presided over Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will decide his fate in the {