Jailhouse Surprise: The Ex-President Bolsonaro Faces Time in Prison

He contested the legal system and justice won.

Sixty days subsequent to being handed a quarter-century plus sentence for trying to “eradicate” Brazil’s political system, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally looks headed to prison.

Imminent Incarceration

The convicted coup-monger – who's been under home confinement in his estate while a number of legal procedures and petitions play out – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the coming days, during mounting rumors that he will be sent to a infamous top-security penitentiary.

Historical Remarks on Convicts

Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the conservative former soldier showed scant sympathy for the country's prison population.

“What’s the need to give these lowlifes a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They should just get fucked, full-fucking-stop. That’s what I reckon.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro stated: “If you don’t want to finish there, all you have to do is not sexual assault, abduction or theft.”

Prison Location Speculation

However the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, four of whom this week visited the prison in an seeming effort to discourage the supreme court from banishing him there.

The senator, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was part of that quartet, stated he predicted the elderly figure to be incarcerated in the next 10 days and worried his destination could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s acute gut issues – the result of a life-threatening knife attack during the 2018 presidential presidential campaign – signified it would be dangerous to keep the former president there. “His [health] situation is highly critical. He cannot to manage if they take him to Papuda … It would be dreadful,” he added, who also expressed concern about overcrowded cells and the condition of jail cuisine.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas noted witnessing cells accommodating four dozen prisoners: “It's virtually one square metre per inmate.

“We conversed to the convicts and they complain, unsurprisingly, of the horrible meals,” continued the senator.

Backers Speak Out

He is not the sole person expressing views before the former president’s expected incarceration.

Authoring in a leading publication, one more backer, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “harsh” finale to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” public service and claimed Brazil was about to see “the largest unfairness in its record”.

“This is an unfairness that gnaws the souls of countless people in Brazil,” he stated.

Varied Public Response

This could be true considering the substantial following Bolsonaro holds on the conservative side. But his expected imprisonment has also warmed the feelings of millions other people who think he ought to be jailed for planning to stop the incoming president from assuming office – and even scheming to have him killed.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the incumbent president's political party, said: “Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be put in a dark cell. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be sent in solitary confinement. Nobody desires Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We wish him to obtain respectful handling – but respectful treatment behind bars. He must not carry on being his personal jailer for his entire life.”

The congressman noted how Bolsonaro supporters, who have spent years celebrating the severe conditions of convicts, had suddenly realized to their rights. “Recently has the far-right – which has repeatedly asserted that civil liberties are not for lawbreakers – chosen to visit a prison to learn what conditions are actually like,” he said.

“He is a lawbreaker,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he earned “shameful, demeaning conduct”.

Potential Incarceration Facilities

Regardless of speculation that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now contains about 14,000 prisoners, his more likely assigned facility looks to be a nearby prison for officers and other “unique” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

The accommodations are far more comfortable than those in the primary facility, although still a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while living in the spectacular presidential palace, about 12 miles away.

According to reports, the cell Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – roughly the size of two parking spaces – and features a 130 square foot bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre veranda. “The ex-president might be authorized to have a television and also a cooler in his quarters as long as they were supplied by his family,” information indicated.

Ideological Comments

He criticized the rumoured proposal 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 coup trial and will decide his fate in the {