Jailhouse Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Confronts Time Behind Bars

He fought the law and the legal system won.

A couple of months following getting a 27-year sentence for trying to “destroy” the nation's democracy, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro at last seems jail-bound.

Imminent Imprisonment

The convicted plotter – who has been living under residential detention in his estate while a set of legal procedures and appeals unfold – is widely expected to be jailed in the coming days, amid growing talk that he will be transferred to a notorious maximum security penitentiary.

Previous Comments on Inmates

Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year time in politics, the far-right former paratrooper displayed minimal mercy for the country's prison population.

“For what reason must we give those scoundrels a easy time?” he once pondered. “They should just get messed, period. That's my opinion.”

At another time, Bolsonaro stated: “If you don’t want to finish there, the only thing required is to avoid sexual assault, kidnap or rob.”

Incarceration Facility Debate

However the prospect of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, several of whom this week visited the complex in an apparent attempt to prevent the supreme court from sending him there.

Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was one of the visitors, claimed he anticipated the septuagenarian leader to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and feared his destination could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s acute gut problems – the outcome of a life-threatening knife attack during the 2018 election race – meant it would be dangerous to keep the former president there. “His [health] situation is highly critical. He won’t be able to cope if they send him to Papuda … It would be dreadful,” he commented, who also worried about packed cells and the quality of prison meals.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells holding 40 prisoners: “That is almost one square metre per inmate.

“We conversed to the prisoners and they protest, of course, of the horrible food,” continued the senator.

Allies React

The senator isn't the sole person speaking out ahead of the ex-leader's expected detention.

Authoring in a prominent newspaper, a different supporter, the former communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to see “the greatest unfairness in its past”.

“It represents an injustice that eats away the hearts of many of Brazilians,” Wajngarten wrote.

Varied Popular Reaction

It is possibly accurate considering the significant support Bolsonaro maintains on the right-wing. However his anticipated imprisonment has also warmed the hearts of millions other people who feel he should be incarcerated for conspiring to prevent his successor from assuming office – and also plotting to have him murdered.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the sitting leader's Workers’ party, said: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be placed in a dungeon. Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be put in segregation. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to receive dignified treatment – but dignified care in prison. He must not continue being his personal jailer for his whole life.”

The congressman noted how Bolsonaro allies, who have long praising the harsh treatment of prisoners, had abruptly become aware to their entitlements. “Recently has the extreme right – which has repeatedly asserted that human rights were not for offenders – decided to inspect a jail to find out what circumstances are truly like,” he said.

“The former president is a lawbreaker,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he earned “degrading, demeaning treatment”.

Likely Prison Facilities

Despite talk that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which presently contains about 14,000 inmates, his expected destination seems to be a adjacent prison for law enforcement and other “unique” prisoners known as Papudinha (Little Papuda).

His potential cell are far more pleasant than those in the main prison, although nonetheless a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while residing in the spectacular presidential palace, around 20 kilometers away.

As per reports, the cell Bolsonaro could likely reside in in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – about the size of a couple of car spots – and contains a 130 square foot bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 square meter balcony. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a television and even a minibar in his quarters as long as they were provided by his loved ones,” information stated.

Partisan Reactions

He condemned the talked-about idea to send the ex-president to Papuda as “an act of revenge” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will decide his future in the {

Michael Lucas
Michael Lucas

A seasoned gambling analyst with over a decade of experience in reviewing online casinos and slot games across Europe.