Prison Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Confronts Life in Prison
He fought justice and the law prevailed.
Sixty days following getting a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “eradicate” the nation's democracy, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro now appears headed to prison.
Anticipated Jailing
The convicted instigator – who has been living under home confinement in his residence while a set of court processes and challenges play out – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the near future, amidst growing speculation that he will be transferred to a notorious maximum security prison.
Previous Statements on Convicts
Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the far-right former soldier exhibited minimal mercy for the country's jailed individuals.
“For what reason must we provide those lowlifes a good life?” he once mused. “They should just get fucked, end of story. That's my view.”
In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to wind up behind bars, the only thing required is not rape, abduction or rob.”
Incarceration Destination Debate
But the prospect of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has shocked supporters, several of whom this week visited the facility in an obvious bid to prevent the supreme court from banishing him there.
Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was part of that quartet, stated he predicted the 70-year-old politician to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and feared his destination could be Papuda.
He asserted Bolsonaro’s acute digestive problems – the outcome of a life-threatening knife attack during the 2018 election race – signified it would be risky to keep the former president there. “His condition is very grave. He won’t be able to manage if they move him to Papuda … It will be awful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the standard of prison meals.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled witnessing cells containing four dozen inmates: “It's practically one meter squared per inmate.
“We spoke to the prisoners and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the awful meals,” continued the senator.
Backers React
The senator isn't the lone figure voicing opinions prior to the ex-leader's predicted detention.
Writing in a leading publication, another ally, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” end to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” public service and claimed Brazil was about to see “the greatest wrong in its record”.
“It is an wrong that eats away the spirits of millions of Brazilians,” he stated.
Divided Popular Response
It is possibly correct considering the considerable following Bolsonaro maintains on the conservative side. However his expected jailing has also pleased the spirits of numerous other people who believe he deserves to be incarcerated for planning to stop his successor from taking power – and even plotting to have him murdered.
Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the current administration's political party, stated: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be placed in a hole. No one wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to obtain dignified treatment – but dignified treatment while incarcerated. He must not persist being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”
The congressman noted how Bolsonaro allies, who have for a long time applauding the harsh treatment of prisoners, had abruptly woken up to their privileges. “Only now has the conservative fringe – which has consistently asserted that human rights should not be for lawbreakers – opted to inspect a prison to find out what circumstances are really like,” he remarked.
“The former president is a criminal,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he merited “humiliating, degrading conduct”.
Likely Incarceration Facilities
Regardless of talk that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now houses about thousands of inmates, his expected assigned facility appears to be a nearby penitentiary for police officers and other “special” prisoners referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).
Its cells are much more pleasant than those in the primary facility, although still a far cry from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while occupying the spectacular official residence, about a short distance away.
Based on reports, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to reside in in Papudinha is about 260 square feet – approximately the size of two parking spaces – and contains a 130 square foot WC with a water facility and a 12 sq metre balcony. “He could be authorized to have a television and additionally a cooler in his cell as long as they were donated by his family,” the report stated.
Political Comments
The lawmaker criticized the speculated proposal to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a type of payback” on the part of the presiding magistrate who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will determine his future in the {