Jailhouse Shock: The FormerPresident Jair Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars
He fought the law and the legal system prevailed.
Two months after being handed a 27-year sentence for trying to “eradicate” the nation's democracy, former president Jair Bolsonaro now appears jail-bound.
Imminent Incarceration
The found-guilty coup-monger – who has been under residential detention in his estate while a set of judicial steps and petitions play out – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the coming days, amidst increasing talk that he will be transferred to a notorious top-security prison.
Previous Comments on Inmates
Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade political career, the far-right former soldier exhibited little sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.
“Why should we offer those dirtbags a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They deserve to be fucked, period. That's my view.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to end up behind bars, the only thing required is not sexual assault, kidnap or theft.”
Prison Location Discussion
However the prospect of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda prison top-security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, several of whom this week inspected the facility in an seeming attempt to discourage the high court from transferring him there.
Senator Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was part of that quartet, said he predicted the 70-year-old leader to be jailed in the next 10 days and was concerned his assigned prison could be Papuda.
The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe gut problems – the consequence of a almost deadly stabbing during the 2018 political campaign – signified it would be risky to keep the one-time head of state there. “His condition is highly critical. He cannot to handle it if they move him to Papuda … It would be terrible,” he added, who also worried about packed cells and the quality of jail cuisine.
While visiting Papuda, Lucas remembered seeing cells holding forty inmates: “That is virtually one square metre per inmate.
“We conversed to the convicts and they protest, of course, of the terrible meals,” added the senator.
Allies Speak Out
The senator isn't the lone figure expressing views before the one-time head of state's predicted imprisonment.
Penning in a leading publication, one more backer, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “brutal” finale to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” political career and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the biggest unfairness in its past”.
“It represents an wrong that gnaws the hearts of millions people in Brazil,” the former minister said.
Varied General Reaction
That may be true given the considerable backing Bolsonaro maintains on the Brazilian right. Yet his anticipated jailing has also gladdened the hearts of numerous individuals who believe he should be incarcerated for conspiring to stop the incoming president from taking power – and additionally conspiring to have him murdered.
The lawmaker, a representative for the current leader's political party, stated: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be put in a hole. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in solitary confinement. No one desires Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to receive proper treatment – but dignified care behind bars. He can’t carry on being his own prison warden for his lifetime.”
Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time applauding the tough conditions of prisoners, had unexpectedly realized to their privileges. “Just now has the conservative fringe – which has repeatedly claimed that civil liberties are not for offenders – opted to tour a prison to discover what conditions are really like,” he remarked.
“The former president is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he earned “shameful, insulting treatment”.
Likely Prison Conditions
Despite talk that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which currently holds about 14,000 prisoners, his expected destination appears to be a nearby prison for police officers and other “particular” inmates called Papudinha (Little Papuda).
Its cells are much more comfortable than those in the larger jail, although still a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while residing in the stunning official residence, approximately a short distance away.
According to reports, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to reside in in Papudinha has about 24 square meters – approximately the area of vehicle spaces – and features a 12 square meter bathroom with a water facility and a 12 square meter balcony. “He could be authorized to have a TV and additionally a cooler in his cell as long as they were supplied by his relatives,” sources indicated.
Ideological Comments
Senator Lucas criticized the speculated proposal to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of payback” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will rule on his future in the {