Jailhouse Surprise: The FormerPresident Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars

He fought the law and the law won.

A couple of months following receiving a quarter-century plus sentence for seeking to “annihilate” the nation's democratic institutions, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now looks destined for incarceration.

Imminent Imprisonment

The found-guilty plotter – who has been under residential detention in his estate while a number of judicial steps and petitions unfold – is widely expected to be jailed in the next few days, amid growing speculation that he will be transferred to a well-known high-security facility.

Past Statements on Prisoners

Over Bolsonaro’s long public life, the conservative ex- soldier showed scant compassion for Brazil’s jailed individuals.

“Why should we offer those dirtbags a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be messed, full-fucking-stop. That's my opinion.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to wind up there, all you have to do is not rape, abduction or theft.”

Prison Destination Debate

Yet the idea of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has horrified supporters, several of whom this week visited the prison in an seeming attempt to discourage the judiciary from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was part of that quartet, claimed he expected the 70-year-old leader to be incarcerated in the following week and a half and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.

He asserted Bolsonaro’s acute digestive problems – the result of a almost deadly stabbing during the 2018 presidential election race – meant it would be dangerous to keep the ex-leader there. “His condition is very grave. He cannot to handle it if they send him to Papuda … It would be dreadful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about packed cells and the quality of inmate food.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled witnessing cells accommodating four dozen prisoners: “It's virtually one square metre per inmate.

“We talked to the prisoners and they protest, of course, of the awful cuisine,” added the senator.

Backers Speak Out

The senator isn't the lone figure speaking out before the one-time head of state's predicted imprisonment.

Writing in a major daily, a different supporter, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “brutal” finale to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” political career and asserted Brazil was about to see “the biggest political injustice in its past”.

“This is an unfairness that gnaws the souls of many Brazilian citizens,” he stated.

Mixed Public Opinion

It is possibly correct considering the considerable following Bolsonaro maintains on the right-wing. Yet his predicted jailing has also warmed the spirits of many individuals who feel he should be incarcerated for conspiring to prevent the incoming president from taking power – and additionally plotting to have him murdered.

Reimont Otoni, a politician for the current president's allied group, stated: “Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be sent in a hole. No one wishes Bolsonaro to be put 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 treatment – but proper treatment while incarcerated. He must not persist being his personal jailer for his whole life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have for a long time praising the harsh treatment of convicts, had unexpectedly realized to their rights. “Just now has the extreme right – which has repeatedly claimed that basic rights were not for criminals – opted to inspect a jail to learn what situations are really like,” he said.

“He is a offender,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he earned “degrading, degrading conduct”.

Potential Prison Environment

Regardless of speculation that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which currently holds about thousands of detainees, his expected destination looks to be a adjacent jail for police officers and other “particular” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

His potential cell are far more pleasant than those in the main prison, although nonetheless a far cry from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the spectacular leader's home, approximately 20 kilometers away.

As per information, the cell Bolsonaro could likely occupy in Papudinha is about 24 square meters – roughly the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and includes a 12 square meter bathroom with a water facility and a 12 square meter balcony. “The ex-president might be authorized to have a TV and additionally a small fridge in his quarters as long as they were provided by his relatives,” information stated.

Political Responses

The lawmaker denounced the speculated proposal to send the former leader to Papuda as “an act of payback” on the part of the judicial authority who oversaw Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his fate in the {

Benjamin Pope
Benjamin Pope

A tech strategist with over a decade of experience in digital innovation and startup ecosystems across Europe.