Jailhouse Shock: Brazil's Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Confronts Time in Prison

He battled the law and the legal system won.

Sixty days following being handed a quarter-century plus sentence for seeking to “annihilate” Brazil’s democratic institutions, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro at last appears headed to prison.

Expected Imprisonment

The adjudicated coup-monger – who has been subject to house arrest in his residence while a series of legal procedures and appeals proceed – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the near future, during increasing speculation that he will be sent to a well-known high-security facility.

Historical Remarks on Inmates

During Bolsonaro’s long time in politics, the far-right ex- military man displayed minimal sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.

“What’s the need to provide these scoundrels a good life?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be fucked, end of story. That's my view.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “Should you not wish to wind up in prison, the only thing required is not sexual assault, kidnap or rob.”

Prison Destination Discussion

But the prospect of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has appalled supporters, a group of four this week visited the facility in an seeming attempt to prevent the high court from banishing him there.

Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was part of that quartet, stated he anticipated the septuagenarian leader to be imprisoned in the next 10 days and was concerned his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe digestive ailments – the outcome of a almost deadly assault during the 2018 presidential presidential campaign – meant it would be risky to keep the one-time head of state there. “His condition is very grave. He won’t be able to manage if they move him to Papuda … It would be terrible,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the standard of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas remembered observing cells containing forty prisoners: “That’s virtually one meter squared per detainee.

“We conversed to the inmates and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the horrible meals,” added the senator.

Backers Voice Concerns

He is not the lone figure expressing views before the one-time head of state's predicted incarceration.

Writing in a leading publication, a different supporter, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “harsh” finale to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” political career and claimed Brazil was about to witness “the largest unfairness in its past”.

“It represents an injustice that gnaws the souls of millions Brazilian citizens,” Wajngarten wrote.

Mixed Popular Opinion

That may be correct given the significant following Bolsonaro retains on the right-wing. Yet his predicted incarceration has also warmed the hearts of numerous other people who think he should be incarcerated for plotting to stop his successor from becoming president – and even conspiring to have him assassinated.

Congressman Otoni, a representative for the incumbent administration's political party, commented: “Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be put in a hole. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to receive respectful handling – but proper care behind bars. He can’t carry on being his personal jailer for his entire life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years celebrating the tough handling of convicts, had unexpectedly become aware to their privileges. “Only now has the extreme right – which has consistently claimed that basic rights were not for lawbreakers – decided to visit a prison to find out what circumstances are really like,” he remarked.

“He is a lawbreaker,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he deserved “shameful, demeaning treatment”.

Possible Prison Facilities

Despite talk that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which currently holds about thousands of inmates, his more likely location looks to be a adjacent jail for law enforcement and other “particular” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

Its cells are much more comfortable than those in the primary facility, although nonetheless a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro had while occupying the stunning leader's home, approximately 12 miles away.

Based on information, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate reside in in Papudinha measures about 24 square meters – about the size of two parking spaces – and includes a 12 sq metre bathroom with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre balcony. “He could be allowed to have a TV and additionally a small fridge in his cell as long as they were provided by his relatives,” sources suggested.

Ideological Reactions

He denounced the speculated idea to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “an act of payback” on the part of the supreme court judge who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his outcome in the {