Jailhouse Shock: The Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars
He contested justice and the law won.
A couple of months following being handed a 27-year sentence for attempting to “annihilate” the nation's democracy, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro finally looks jail-bound.
Expected Incarceration
The adjudicated plotter – who's been living under home confinement in his estate while a set of court processes and challenges play out – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the coming days, amid mounting speculation that he will be sent to a notorious maximum security facility.
Historical Comments on Inmates
Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year public life, the far-right former military man displayed little mercy for Brazil’s inmates.
“Why should we provide these lowlifes a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They ought to simply be messed, full-fucking-stop. That's my view.”
At another time, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to end up in prison, all you have to do is not sexual assault, kidnap or theft.”
Incarceration Location Speculation
Yet the prospect of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, a group of four this week inspected the facility in an seeming attempt to dissuade the judiciary from banishing him there.
Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was among that group, stated he predicted the 70-year-old politician to be incarcerated in the following week and a half and was concerned his destination could be Papuda.
The senator argued Bolsonaro’s serious intestinal ailments – the outcome of a near-fatal assault during the 2018 presidential election race – meant it would be dangerous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His condition is highly critical. He will not be able to cope if they take him to Papuda … It could be awful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about cramped cells and the condition of jail cuisine.
While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted observing cells holding forty detainees: “That’s virtually one square meter per detainee.
“We spoke to the convicts and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the horrible food,” remarked the senator.
Supporters React
Lucas is not the only voice expressing views prior to the one-time head of state's predicted incarceration.
Authoring in a leading newspaper, another ally, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “harsh” finale to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” political career and claimed Brazil was about to witness “the greatest wrong in its past”.
“It is an injustice that erodes the hearts of millions of Brazilians,” Wajngarten wrote.
Divided General Reaction
It is possibly true given the significant support Bolsonaro retains on the conservative side. However his predicted imprisonment has also pleased the hearts of numerous other people who think he deserves to be imprisoned for planning to prevent his successor from becoming president – and even plotting to have him murdered.
Congressman Otoni, a representative for the current president's political party, said: “No one wishes Bolsonaro to be put in a dungeon. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We want him to obtain proper handling – but proper treatment while incarcerated. He can’t carry on being his own prison warden for his entire life.”
Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro allies, who have spent years praising the severe conditions of prisoners, had unexpectedly realized to their privileges. “Just now has the far-right – which has consistently asserted that civil liberties were not for lawbreakers – chosen to tour a jail to learn what situations are really like,” he said.
“Bolsonaro is a offender,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he merited “shameful, insulting conduct”.
Likely Incarceration Conditions
Regardless of speculation that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which currently holds about thousands of detainees, his expected assigned facility looks to be a close penitentiary for law enforcement and other “unique” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Little Papuda).
His potential cell are far more comfortable than those in the primary facility, although still a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro experienced while living in the spectacular presidential palace, approximately a short distance away.
Based on reports, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – roughly the area of a couple of car spots – and features a 12 square meter bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 square meter terrace. “He could be authorized to have a television and additionally a minibar in his cell as long as they were donated by his relatives,” the report indicated.
Partisan Comments
The lawmaker denounced the talked-about plan to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who presided over Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will decide his outcome in the {