Jailhouse Shock: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Confronts Time in Prison
He fought the legal system and the legal system prevailed.
Sixty days after being handed a 27-year sentence for seeking to “eradicate” the nation's democratic institutions, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro finally looks jail-bound.
Expected Imprisonment
The convicted plotter – who had been under house arrest in his mansion while a set of court processes and appeals unfold – is largely predicted to be jailed in the next few days, amid increasing talk that he will be transferred to a well-known top-security facility.
Historical Remarks on Inmates
Over Bolsonaro’s 40-year public life, the right-wing ex- soldier displayed little mercy for the country's prison population.
“What’s the need to provide these lowlifes a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be messed, period. That's my view.”
In another instance, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to wind up behind bars, you simply need is not rape, abduction or rob.”
Jail Location Discussion
However the possibility of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda prison top-security prison in Brasília has shocked supporters, several of whom this week visited the facility in an apparent effort to discourage the judiciary from banishing him there.
Izalci Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, claimed he expected the septuagenarian leader to be jailed in the next 10 days and worried his location could be Papuda.
He asserted Bolsonaro’s acute gut ailments – the outcome of a almost deadly knife attack during the 2018 election race – signified it would be hazardous to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He cannot to handle it if they take him to Papuda … It could be terrible,” he commented, who also worried about packed cells and the standard of inmate food.
During his tour Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells holding four dozen detainees: “That is virtually one meter squared per prisoner.
“We conversed to the prisoners and they complain, of course, of the terrible meals,” continued the senator.
Supporters Speak Out
He is not the sole person speaking out before the former president’s predicted imprisonment.
Penning in a prominent newspaper, a different supporter, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to see “the greatest unfairness in its history”.
“This is an unfairness that gnaws the spirits of millions people in Brazil,” Wajngarten wrote.
Mixed General Response
That may be accurate given the significant support Bolsonaro maintains on the right-wing. Yet his predicted imprisonment has also pleased the hearts of many individuals who think he deserves to be jailed for plotting to stop his successor from assuming office – and also plotting to have him killed.
Reimont Otoni, a politician for the current leader's political party, commented: “No one desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a hole. No one wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. No one wishes Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to obtain respectful care – but respectful care in prison. He must not carry on being his personal jailer for his whole life.”
The congressman noted how Bolsonaro allies, who have long praising the tough treatment of inmates, had unexpectedly realized to their rights. “Only now has the extreme right – which has repeatedly asserted that human rights were not for offenders – chosen to inspect a jail to learn what situations are actually like,” he remarked.
“Bolsonaro is a offender,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he earned “degrading, insulting conduct”.
Likely Incarceration Conditions
Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which presently houses about 14,000 prisoners, his expected assigned facility appears to be a adjacent prison for police officers and other “particular” prisoners called Papudinha (Minor Papuda).
Its cells are considerably more adequate than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a far cry from the luxury Bolsonaro experienced while living in the impressive official residence, about a short distance away.
As per reports, the accommodation Bolsonaro could likely occupy in Papudinha is about 24 sq metres – about the area of vehicle spaces – and includes a 12 sq metre WC with a water facility and a 130 square foot terrace. “He could be authorized to have a television and also a small fridge in his quarters as long as they were provided by his family,” the report indicated.
Political Reactions
Senator Lucas denounced the rumoured idea to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “an act of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will decide his future in the {