🔗 Share this article

He contested the legal system and the law prevailed.

Sixty days subsequent to getting a twenty-seven-year sentence for trying to “eradicate” the nation's democratic institutions, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally appears destined for incarceration.

Expected Jailing

The convicted coup-monger – who's been under house arrest in his estate while a number of judicial steps and petitions proceed – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the near future, amid mounting talk that he will be moved to a well-known high-security prison.

Historical Comments on Prisoners

Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year political career, the right-wing former soldier exhibited minimal compassion for Brazil’s prison population.

“For what reason must we offer those dirtbags a easy time?” he once mused. “They deserve to be screwed, period. That's my view.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “Should you not wish to finish in prison, all you have to do is to avoid rape, abduction or rob.”

Incarceration Location Debate

However the prospect of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison top-security prison in Brasília has shocked supporters, a group of four this week inspected the facility in an seeming bid to prevent the judiciary from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was among that group, said he predicted the elderly leader to be incarcerated in the following week and a half and feared his destination could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe intestinal ailments – the consequence of a near-fatal stabbing during the 2018 political campaign – signified it would be dangerous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His health is highly critical. He won’t be able to manage if they move him to Papuda … It will be awful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the quality of prison meals.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas recalled seeing cells containing four dozen inmates: “It's practically one square metre per inmate.

“We conversed to the prisoners and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the terrible cuisine,” remarked the senator.

Backers Voice Concerns

The senator isn't the sole person voicing opinions prior to the one-time head of state's predicted incarceration.

Authoring in a leading publication, a different supporter, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” end to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the greatest wrong in its record”.

“It is an unfairness that eats away the spirits of countless people in Brazil,” the former minister said.

Divided Public Reaction

That may be correct considering the substantial following Bolsonaro holds on the Brazilian right. Yet his anticipated jailing has also gladdened the feelings of many others who think he deserves to be jailed for planning to prevent the elected leader from taking power – and also scheming to have him murdered.

The lawmaker, a politician for the incumbent president's political party, commented: “No one wishes Bolsonaro to be put in a dark cell. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to get dignified care – but proper care behind bars. He can’t continue being his personal jailer for his entire life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro allies, who have spent years praising the severe conditions of prisoners, had suddenly realized to their entitlements. “Only now has the conservative fringe – which has always argued that human rights should not be for offenders – decided to inspect a penitentiary to learn what circumstances are truly like,” he stated.

“He is a criminal,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he deserved “degrading, insulting handling”.

Potential Incarceration Conditions

Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which presently houses about fourteen thousand inmates, his more likely destination seems to be a adjacent prison for police officers and other “particular” detainees called Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

The accommodations are considerably more adequate than those in the larger jail, although nevertheless a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the impressive leader's home, about a short distance away.

According to sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate inhabit in Papudinha measures about 24 sq metres – approximately the area of two parking spaces – and features a 130 square foot WC with a bathing area and a 12 sq metre veranda. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a TV and additionally a cooler in his room as long as they were supplied by his loved ones,” the report suggested.

Partisan Comments

The lawmaker condemned the talked-about proposal to send the former leader to Papuda as “a type of revenge” on the part of the judicial authority who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his outcome in the {