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

He battled the law and the law triumphed.

A couple of months following getting a quarter-century plus sentence for attempting to “annihilate” Brazil’s democratic institutions, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro at last looks headed to prison.

Imminent Imprisonment

The convicted coup-monger – who has been subject to house arrest in his estate while a series of judicial steps and challenges play out – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the coming days, amidst growing speculation that he will be moved to a well-known maximum security penitentiary.

Past Comments on Convicts

Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the far-right ex- soldier exhibited scant sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.

“What’s the need to give those dirtbags a easy time?” he once pondered. “They should just get fucked, period. That’s what I reckon.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to wind up behind bars, you simply need is to avoid rape, kidnap or theft.”

Incarceration Destination Debate

But the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison top-security prison in Brasília has appalled allies, several of whom this week inspected the facility in an seeming bid to dissuade the high court from sending him there.

The senator, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was among that group, claimed he expected the elderly figure to be jailed in the next 10 days and worried his location could be Papuda.

He asserted Bolsonaro’s severe digestive problems – the result of a life-threatening knife attack during the 2018 election race – implied it would be hazardous to keep the ex-leader there. “His condition is very grave. He will not be able to cope if they send him to Papuda … It could be awful,” he added, who also worried about packed cells and the standard of prison meals.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas recalled observing cells holding four dozen inmates: “It's practically one square meter per inmate.

“We talked to the prisoners and they grumble, of course, of the terrible meals,” remarked the senator.

Supporters React

Lucas is not the lone figure expressing views ahead of the ex-leader's anticipated detention.

Writing in a major daily, another ally, the former communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “brutal” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to see “the largest wrong in its record”.

“It is an injustice that eats away the hearts of many Brazilian citizens,” he stated.

Varied Popular Opinion

This could be true considering the considerable following Bolsonaro retains on the right-wing. Yet his expected jailing has also pleased the spirits of many other people who think he ought to be imprisoned for conspiring to stop the incoming president from becoming president – and even plotting to have him assassinated.

The lawmaker, a representative for the current leader's political party, commented: “Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in a dungeon. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be put in solitary confinement. Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We want him to obtain dignified handling – but respectful care behind bars. He can’t continue being his own prison warden for his lifetime.”

He observed how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years applauding the severe handling of convicts, had abruptly realized to their entitlements. “Only now has the extreme right – which has always claimed that basic rights were not for offenders – opted to visit a penitentiary to find out what situations are truly like,” he remarked.

“Bolsonaro is a criminal,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, demeaning treatment”.

Potential Incarceration Conditions

In spite of rumors that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now contains about thousands of detainees, his more likely assigned facility appears to be a nearby prison for law enforcement and other “unique” inmates known as Papudinha (Little Papuda).

Its cells are much more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a distant from the luxury Bolsonaro enjoyed while living in the impressive official residence, around 20 kilometers away.

According to information, the accommodation Bolsonaro could expect to inhabit in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – approximately the area of two parking spaces – and includes a 12 square meter WC with a shower and a 130 square foot balcony. “Bolsonaro would be authorized to have a TV and additionally a minibar in his room as long as they were supplied by his relatives,” sources suggested.

Ideological Comments

The lawmaker criticized the talked-about plan to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a type of payback” on the part of the presiding magistrate who presided over Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will decide his outcome in the {