Jailhouse Shock: The Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Faces Life Behind Bars
He contested the legal system and the legal system prevailed.
Sixty days subsequent to getting a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “destroy” Brazil’s democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro at last looks headed to prison.
Anticipated Jailing
The convicted plotter – who's been under residential detention in his mansion while a series of court processes and challenges proceed – is largely predicted to be jailed in the coming days, amid increasing rumors that he will be sent to a well-known maximum security prison.
Past Remarks on Convicts
Over Bolsonaro’s long time in politics, the far-right former paratrooper showed little sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.
“What’s the need to provide these lowlifes a easy time?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be screwed, full-fucking-stop. That's my view.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to wind up behind bars, you simply need is not rape, abduction or theft.”
Prison Location Speculation
However the idea of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has shocked supporters, four of whom this week inspected the facility in an apparent attempt to prevent the high court from sending him there.
The senator, a senator from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was part of that quartet, stated he predicted the septuagenarian leader to be jailed in the next 10 days and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.
Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s acute digestive issues – the consequence of a life-threatening stabbing during the last presidential campaign – implied it would be dangerous to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He will not be able to cope if they move him to Papuda … It could be awful,” he added, who also expressed concern about cramped cells and the standard of prison meals.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled observing cells holding 40 detainees: “It's practically one square meter per inmate.
“We conversed to the convicts and they grumble, naturally, of the terrible food,” added the senator.
Backers Voice Concerns
He is not the lone figure expressing views prior to the former president’s predicted imprisonment.
Writing in a prominent newspaper, one more backer, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” finale to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to witness “the largest wrong in its record”.
“It represents an unfairness that gnaws the spirits of millions people in Brazil,” the former minister said.
Mixed General Opinion
That may be true due to the significant support Bolsonaro maintains on the conservative side. However his expected jailing has also gladdened the feelings of numerous other people who believe he ought to be jailed for conspiring to block the incoming president from becoming president – and also plotting to have him murdered.
Reimont Otoni, a politician for the current leader's Workers’ party, said: “Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in isolation. No one wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We wish him to obtain respectful treatment – but dignified care in prison. He must not continue being his self-appointed guard for his whole life.”
Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years praising the severe treatment of prisoners, had abruptly realized to their privileges. “Only now has the conservative fringe – which has repeatedly argued that human rights should not be for lawbreakers – decided to tour a jail to discover what situations are actually like,” he said.
“He is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he deserved “shameful, degrading treatment”.
Potential Jail Conditions
Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which currently holds about thousands of inmates, his more likely destination appears to be a close jail for law enforcement and other “particular” detainees called Papudinha (Little Papuda).
Its cells are much more adequate than those in the main prison, although still a distant from the luxury Bolsonaro experienced while occupying the spectacular leader's home, about 12 miles away.
According to reports, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha measures about 24 square meters – approximately the area of vehicle spaces – and contains a 12 square meter WC with a shower and a 12 square meter terrace. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a television and even a cooler in his room as long as they were supplied by his relatives,” information suggested.
Political Comments
Senator Lucas condemned the speculated plan to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of revenge” on the part of the presiding magistrate who oversaw Bolsonaro’s legal case and will determine his future in the {