Prison Shock: The Ex-President Bolsonaro Faces Life Behind Bars
He contested the law and the legal system triumphed.
Two months subsequent to getting a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “eradicate” the nation's democratic institutions, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro at last seems headed to prison.
Anticipated Incarceration
The adjudicated coup-monger – who has been living under house arrest in his residence while a number of legal procedures and challenges proceed – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the next few days, amidst increasing rumors that he will be transferred to a well-known high-security prison.
Past Remarks on Prisoners
Over Bolsonaro’s long public life, the far-right former paratrooper exhibited minimal sympathy for Brazil’s prison population.
“For what reason must we provide those lowlifes a good life?” he once pondered. “They deserve to be messed, period. That's my view.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro declared: “Should you not wish to finish in prison, all you have to do is not rape, abduction or theft.”
Prison Destination Debate
But the idea of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, four of whom this week visited the prison in an obvious attempt to dissuade the judiciary from sending him there.
Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, stated he expected the septuagenarian politician to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and feared his assigned prison could be Papuda.
The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe digestive problems – the result of a near-fatal knife attack during the 2018 political campaign – meant it would be hazardous to keep the former president there. “His health is very grave. He will not be able to handle it if they move him to Papuda … It will be dreadful,” said the senator, who also worried about cramped cells and the quality of jail cuisine.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas remembered witnessing cells holding four dozen prisoners: “That is virtually one square meter per inmate.
“We talked to the convicts and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the awful cuisine,” added the senator.
Backers React
He is not the only voice voicing opinions prior to the former president’s predicted detention.
Authoring in a leading daily, another ally, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” finale to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the largest wrong in its record”.
“It represents an unfairness that eats away the hearts of countless Brazilian citizens,” he stated.
Mixed Public Reaction
This could be accurate considering the substantial support Bolsonaro retains on the Brazilian right. Yet his expected imprisonment has also warmed the hearts of many individuals who think he ought to be jailed for plotting to prevent the incoming president from taking power – and additionally plotting to have him killed.
Congressman Otoni, a representative for the incumbent administration's allied group, said: “Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be sent in a dark cell. Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. No one wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to receive dignified handling – but dignified handling while incarcerated. He must not carry on being his own prison warden for his whole life.”
He observed how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years praising the severe handling of prisoners, had suddenly woken up to their privileges. “Recently has the extreme right – which has consistently asserted that human rights should not be for criminals – opted to tour a jail to find out what conditions are truly like,” he said.
“Bolsonaro is a offender,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he earned “humiliating, degrading treatment”.
Likely Incarceration Conditions
Regardless of talk that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now houses about 14,000 prisoners, his expected location looks to be a close penitentiary for police officers and other “particular” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Little Papuda).
Its cells are far more comfortable than those in the primary facility, although nonetheless a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while residing in the stunning official residence, approximately 20 kilometers away.
Based on sources, the cell Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha measures about 260 square feet – approximately the area of vehicle spaces – and features a 12 square meter WC with a shower and a 12 square meter veranda. “Bolsonaro would be authorized to have a TV and even a cooler in his quarters as long as they were donated by his relatives,” information indicated.
Partisan Reactions
The lawmaker condemned the speculated plan to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a form of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who presided over Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will determine his outcome in the {