Jailhouse Shock: The Ex-President Bolsonaro Confronts Life in Prison
He contested justice and the legal system triumphed.
Sixty days following receiving a 27-year sentence for trying to “annihilate” the nation's political system, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro at last seems jail-bound.
Anticipated Imprisonment
The found-guilty coup-monger – who's been subject to home confinement in his estate while a set of legal procedures and petitions unfold – is broadly anticipated to be incarcerated in the near future, amidst mounting talk that he will be moved to a well-known high-security penitentiary.
Past Statements on Inmates
During Bolsonaro’s long political career, the conservative former soldier exhibited little sympathy for Brazil’s jailed individuals.
“What’s the need to provide those lowlifes a comfortable existence?” he once mused. “They should just get messed, full-fucking-stop. That’s what I reckon.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “Unless you desire to wind up in prison, you simply need is to avoid sexual assault, abduction or rob.”
Jail Facility Discussion
But the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has appalled supporters, a group of four this week toured the complex in an seeming bid to prevent the high court from transferring him there.
The senator, a politician from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was part of that quartet, stated he expected the elderly leader to be jailed in the coming fortnight and worried his destination could be Papuda.
He asserted Bolsonaro’s serious intestinal problems – the result of a near-fatal knife attack during the last political campaign – implied 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 move him to Papuda … It will be awful,” said the senator, who also expressed concern about packed cells and the condition of jail cuisine.
When inspecting Papuda, Lucas noted witnessing cells holding forty detainees: “That’s virtually one square metre per detainee.
“We conversed to the prisoners and they protest, of course, of the awful cuisine,” remarked the senator.
Supporters Voice Concerns
The senator isn't the sole person expressing views before the former president’s expected detention.
Penning in a leading publication, another ally, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the biggest political injustice in its past”.
“It is an wrong that gnaws the hearts of countless of Brazilians,” Wajngarten wrote.
Mixed Popular Opinion
That may be correct given the considerable backing Bolsonaro retains on the conservative side. Yet his predicted incarceration has also pleased the spirits of many individuals who think he deserves to be jailed for conspiring to block his successor from assuming office – and also scheming to have him assassinated.
Congressman Otoni, a representative for the sitting leader's political party, commented: “Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in a dungeon. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be placed in segregation. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to lie on concrete. We desire him to receive dignified care – but respectful handling behind bars. He cannot carry on being his personal jailer for his entire life.”
He observed how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years praising the tough treatment of inmates, had unexpectedly become aware to their privileges. “Recently has the extreme right – which has always asserted that human rights were not for criminals – chosen to inspect a prison to discover what situations are actually like,” he stated.
“He is a offender,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, insulting handling”.
Possible Jail Conditions
Regardless of talk that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which currently houses about 14,000 prisoners, his probable destination looks to be a close prison for officers and other “particular” inmates known as Papudinha (Little Papuda).
Its cells are much more comfortable than those in the main prison, although nonetheless a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the spectacular presidential palace, around a short distance away.
As per sources, the room Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha has about 260 square feet – about the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and contains a 130 square foot bathroom with a water facility and a 12 sq metre terrace. “The ex-president might be allowed to have a TV and even a cooler in his room as long as they were supplied by his relatives,” information indicated.
Ideological Responses
Senator Lucas denounced the speculated idea to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of revenge” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his fate in the {