Prison Surprise: Brazil's Ex-President Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars

He fought the legal system and the legal system prevailed.

Sixty days after being handed a 27-year sentence for trying to “destroy” Brazil’s political system, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally looks jail-bound.

Expected Jailing

The convicted plotter – who has been under home confinement in his residence while a number of legal procedures and petitions play out – is broadly anticipated to be imprisoned in the next few days, during growing talk that he will be moved to a notorious maximum security prison.

Past Comments on Prisoners

Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the right-wing former military man showed minimal sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.

“For what reason must we offer these lowlifes a good life?” he once mused. “They should just get fucked, full-fucking-stop. That's my opinion.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro declared: “Unless you desire to finish behind bars, all you have to do is not rape, abduction or theft.”

Incarceration Destination Speculation

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has appalled backers, four of whom this week visited the complex in an apparent effort to dissuade the high court from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was among that group, claimed he expected the elderly politician to be jailed in the coming fortnight and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe intestinal issues – the consequence of a life-threatening stabbing during the 2018 presidential election race – implied it would be hazardous to keep the former president there. “His condition is very grave. He won’t be able to manage if they send him to Papuda … It would be awful,” he commented, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the quality of inmate food.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled seeing cells containing four dozen inmates: “That’s virtually one square meter per prisoner.

“We spoke to the prisoners and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the awful food,” remarked the senator.

Supporters React

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

Writing in a leading newspaper, one more backer, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “brutal” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” public service and alleged Brazil was about to witness “the greatest wrong in its record”.

“It represents an unfairness that eats away the spirits of millions of Brazilians,” Wajngarten wrote.

Divided Public Opinion

It is possibly true considering the significant support Bolsonaro maintains on the Brazilian right. But his anticipated incarceration has also pleased the spirits of numerous others who think he should be jailed for conspiring to block the elected leader from assuming office – and even plotting to have him assassinated.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the current leader's Workers’ party, commented: “No one wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in a hole. Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We desire him to receive proper handling – but respectful care in prison. He cannot persist being his self-appointed guard for his entire life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have spent years applauding the severe treatment of inmates, had unexpectedly become aware to their privileges. “Recently has the conservative fringe – which has always argued that civil liberties should not be for offenders – opted to tour a penitentiary to find out what situations are really like,” he remarked.

“He is a offender,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he earned “degrading, insulting handling”.

Possible Prison Environment

Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which currently houses about fourteen thousand prisoners, his expected location looks to be a adjacent jail for law enforcement and other “particular” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

The accommodations are considerably more adequate than those in the main prison, although nonetheless a distant from the luxury Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the stunning presidential palace, about 20 kilometers away.

Based on reports, the cell Bolsonaro could expect to occupy in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – about the dimensions of two parking spaces – and contains a 12 square meter WC with a shower and a 130 square foot terrace. “He could be permitted to have a television and also a cooler in his room as long as they were donated by his relatives,” information indicated.

Partisan Responses

He denounced the speculated plan to send the one-time head of state to Papuda as “a form of revenge” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will determine his outcome in the {