Jailhouse Surprise: The FormerPresident Bolsonaro Confronts Time Behind Bars

He battled justice and justice triumphed.

A couple of months after receiving a twenty-seven-year sentence for trying to “annihilate” the nation's democracy, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now appears jail-bound.

Imminent Jailing

The adjudicated plotter – who's been subject to home confinement in his mansion while a number of legal procedures and petitions proceed – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the coming days, amidst growing talk that he will be transferred to a well-known high-security prison.

Past Comments on Prisoners

During Bolsonaro’s long public life, the right-wing ex- paratrooper displayed minimal sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.

“For what reason must we provide those scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he once mused. “They ought to simply be screwed, end of story. That's my opinion.”

At another time, Bolsonaro declared: “Should you not wish to finish there, the only thing required is to avoid rape, abduction or rob.”

Prison Location Speculation

However the possibility of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, four of whom this week visited the prison in an apparent bid to prevent the supreme court from banishing him there.

The senator, a senator from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was among that group, stated he expected the 70-year-old leader to be incarcerated in the coming fortnight and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious digestive problems – the consequence of a almost deadly stabbing during the 2018 election race – implied it would be hazardous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His [health] situation is highly critical. He will not be able to handle it if they send him to Papuda … It would be dreadful,” he added, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the quality of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells holding forty detainees: “That is practically one meter squared per prisoner.

“We talked to the inmates and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the terrible meals,” remarked the senator.

Supporters Voice Concerns

Lucas is not the sole person expressing views ahead of the one-time head of state's expected imprisonment.

Writing in a prominent daily, a different supporter, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” finale to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the largest wrong in its past”.

“It is an wrong that erodes the hearts of millions Brazilian citizens,” the former minister said.

Mixed Popular Reaction

This could be correct considering the substantial backing Bolsonaro retains on the right-wing. However his anticipated imprisonment has also pleased the spirits of many other people who think he should be jailed for plotting to block the elected leader from taking power – and also plotting to have him killed.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the incumbent president's allied group, said: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. No one desires Bolsonaro to be sent in isolation. Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We desire him to get proper handling – but proper care behind bars. He can’t persist being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time applauding the severe conditions of prisoners, had abruptly woken up to their privileges. “Only now has the extreme right – which has always claimed that civil liberties are not for criminals – opted to tour a prison to learn what conditions are truly like,” he stated.

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

Possible Incarceration Environment

In spite of rumors that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which presently houses about thousands of prisoners, his expected location seems to be a nearby penitentiary for officers and other “particular” detainees called Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

Its cells are far more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a distant from the luxury Bolsonaro experienced while occupying the spectacular presidential palace, about 20 kilometers away.

According to sources, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to inhabit in Papudinha has about 260 square feet – approximately the size of a couple of car spots – and includes a 12 square meter bathroom with a water facility and a 12 square meter balcony. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a television and even a minibar in his cell as long as they were donated by his relatives,” the report stated.

Partisan Responses

He denounced the rumoured proposal to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a form of retaliation” on the part of the judicial authority who led Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will decide his fate in the {

Jasmin Curtis
Jasmin Curtis

A software engineer and tech writer passionate about open-source projects and digital transformation, with over a decade of industry experience.