Jailhouse Shock: The Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Faces Life Behind Bars

He battled the legal system and justice won.

Sixty days following getting a quarter-century plus sentence for trying to “annihilate” the nation's political system, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro at last looks headed to prison.

Expected Incarceration

The convicted instigator – who has been living under residential detention in his estate while a number of judicial steps and appeals proceed – is broadly anticipated to be jailed in the coming days, amidst increasing talk that he will be sent to a infamous maximum security penitentiary.

Historical Statements on Inmates

Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year time in politics, the far-right former military man exhibited minimal sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.

“What’s the need to offer these lowlifes a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They ought to simply be fucked, full-fucking-stop. That's my view.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro declared: “Should you not wish to finish there, all you have to do is not rape, kidnap or theft.”

Incarceration Location Debate

However the prospect of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, several of whom this week visited the prison in an apparent attempt to dissuade the judiciary from transferring him there.

The senator, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was among that group, said he expected the elderly figure to be jailed in the coming fortnight and feared his destination could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s acute digestive ailments – the result of a life-threatening assault during the last presidential campaign – signified it would be hazardous to keep the former president there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He won’t be able to handle it if they take him to Papuda … It will be dreadful,” he added, who also voiced anxiety about packed cells and the quality of prison meals.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted witnessing cells containing four dozen prisoners: “It's virtually one meter squared per detainee.

“We talked to the convicts and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the terrible food,” remarked the senator.

Allies React

He is not the lone figure expressing views ahead of the former president’s anticipated detention.

Authoring in a major publication, another ally, the ex- government official Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the greatest wrong in its past”.

“It represents an unfairness that gnaws the hearts of millions people in Brazil,” the former minister said.

Mixed Popular Reaction

It is possibly correct considering the considerable support Bolsonaro retains on the conservative side. Yet his predicted imprisonment has also gladdened the spirits of numerous others who believe he ought to be imprisoned for planning to stop the incoming president from becoming president – and also scheming to have him assassinated.

The lawmaker, a politician for the incumbent administration's allied group, commented: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be sent in a dark cell. Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be sent in isolation. Nobody wants Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We want him to get dignified handling – but dignified handling in prison. He cannot carry on being his own prison warden for his whole life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro allies, who have for a long time celebrating the harsh handling of inmates, had abruptly become aware to their entitlements. “Just now has the far-right – which has always asserted that basic rights should not be for lawbreakers – opted to tour a prison to discover what situations are actually like,” he stated.

“The former president is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he earned “humiliating, degrading conduct”.

Possible Prison Conditions

Regardless of rumors that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now houses about fourteen thousand detainees, his more likely assigned facility looks to be a close jail for police officers and other “unique” prisoners known as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

Its cells are far more comfortable than those in the primary facility, although nevertheless a far cry from the opulence Bolsonaro had while occupying the spectacular leader's home, approximately 12 miles away.

Based on sources, the room Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha has about 260 square feet – about the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and includes a 12 sq metre bathroom with a shower and a 12 square meter veranda. “He could be authorized to have a set and also a cooler in his room as long as they were supplied by his loved ones,” information suggested.

Partisan Comments

The lawmaker denounced the speculated proposal to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a form of payback” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his fate in the {

Matthew Harrington
Matthew Harrington

A data scientist and business analyst with over 10 years of experience in transforming raw data into actionable strategies for global enterprises.