Jailhouse Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Faces Life Behind Bars
He battled the legal system and justice won.
Two months after getting a twenty-seven-year sentence for trying to “destroy” Brazil’s democratic institutions, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now appears headed to prison.
Imminent Imprisonment
The adjudicated coup-monger – who's been under house arrest in his mansion while a number of judicial steps and appeals play out – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the near future, amid increasing rumors that he will be moved to a well-known top-security facility.
Historical Remarks on Convicts
Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the conservative former military man showed little mercy for the country's prison population.
“For what reason must we offer those lowlifes a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They should just get messed, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”
On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “Unless you desire to finish in prison, all you have to do is to avoid sexual assault, abduction or rob.”
Prison Location Debate
But the prospect of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has horrified allies, several of whom this week toured the facility in an apparent effort to dissuade the judiciary from banishing him there.
Izalci Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, said he predicted the elderly figure to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and worried his location could be Papuda.
The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe gut issues – the result of a life-threatening knife attack during the last election race – implied it would be risky to keep the former president there. “His condition is very grave. He cannot to cope if they move him to Papuda … It could be dreadful,” he commented, who also worried about overcrowded cells and the standard of jail cuisine.
When inspecting Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells containing forty prisoners: “That’s practically one square metre per prisoner.
“We talked to the inmates and they complain, of course, of the terrible cuisine,” added the senator.
Allies React
The senator isn't the lone figure speaking out ahead of the former president’s anticipated detention.
Penning in a prominent newspaper, another ally, the former communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” finale to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” public service and asserted Brazil was about to see “the greatest wrong in its record”.
“It is an injustice that gnaws the souls of many people in Brazil,” he stated.
Mixed General Opinion
This could be true due to the substantial following Bolsonaro holds on the right-wing. Yet his anticipated jailing has also warmed the hearts of millions others who think he should be jailed for plotting to block the elected leader from becoming president – and additionally scheming to have him assassinated.
The lawmaker, a politician for the current leader's political party, said: “Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in a hole. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in solitary confinement. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We wish him to obtain proper treatment – but dignified care while incarcerated. He can’t continue being his own prison warden for his whole life.”
The congressman noted how Bolsonaro supporters, who have spent years applauding the tough treatment of inmates, had unexpectedly become aware to their entitlements. “Recently has the far-right – which has always claimed that civil liberties are not for criminals – chosen to tour a jail to learn what situations are actually like,” he said.
“He is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he earned “degrading, demeaning treatment”.
Potential Prison Facilities
Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now holds about fourteen thousand inmates, his more likely location looks to be a adjacent jail for law enforcement and other “unique” inmates known as Papudinha (Small Papuda).
His potential cell are considerably more comfortable than those in the primary facility, although nevertheless a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the impressive leader's home, around 12 miles away.
According to reports, the room Bolsonaro could expect to inhabit in Papudinha is about 260 square feet – about the size of two parking spaces – and includes a 130 square foot WC with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre balcony. “He could be permitted to have a television and even a cooler in his room as long as they were donated by his relatives,” sources stated.
Ideological Comments
The lawmaker denounced the talked-about idea to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of retaliation” on the part of the judicial authority who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his future in the {