Jailhouse Surprise: The Ex-President Jair Bolsonaro Faces Life Behind Bars

He battled the legal system and justice prevailed.

Two months subsequent to being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “eradicate” Brazil’s political system, former president Jair Bolsonaro at last looks headed to prison.

Expected Imprisonment

The found-guilty instigator – who has been subject to home confinement in his estate while a set of judicial steps and appeals unfold – is largely predicted to be incarcerated in the near future, amidst mounting talk that he will be moved to a well-known maximum security penitentiary.

Previous Comments on Prisoners

Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade time in politics, the conservative former military man showed minimal mercy for the country's jailed individuals.

“Why should we provide those lowlifes a easy time?” he once mused. “They deserve to be messed, period. That's my opinion.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro declared: “Should you not wish to finish behind bars, the only thing required is not sexual assault, abduction or theft.”

Jail Location Speculation

Yet the prospect of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison top-security prison in Brasília has shocked allies, four of whom this week visited the facility in an apparent bid to discourage the judiciary from transferring him there.

Senator Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was one of the visitors, said he expected the 70-year-old politician to be jailed in the following week and a half and was concerned his destination could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe digestive ailments – the outcome of a life-threatening stabbing during the last political campaign – implied it would be dangerous to keep the former president there. “His health is very grave. He cannot to manage if they move him to Papuda … It could be awful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the standard of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted observing cells accommodating 40 detainees: “It's almost one square metre per prisoner.

“We conversed to the prisoners and they complain, unsurprisingly, of the awful cuisine,” added the senator.

Supporters React

Lucas is not the only voice speaking out before the former president’s expected incarceration.

Authoring in a major newspaper, another ally, the ex- government official Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “brutal” end to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to experience “the biggest political injustice in its past”.

“It represents an injustice that erodes the souls of countless of Brazilians,” he stated.

Divided Public Opinion

This could be accurate given the significant following Bolsonaro holds on the conservative side. But his predicted jailing has also gladdened the spirits of numerous others who believe he ought to be imprisoned for conspiring to stop the elected leader from becoming president – and even plotting to have him murdered.

Congressman Otoni, a representative for the sitting leader's allied group, said: “Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a dungeon. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be put in solitary confinement. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We wish him to obtain respectful treatment – but proper handling in prison. He must not continue being his personal jailer for his whole life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have long applauding the severe handling of prisoners, had unexpectedly realized to their privileges. “Only now has the conservative fringe – which has consistently claimed that basic rights were not for offenders – chosen to visit a penitentiary to find out what conditions are truly like,” he remarked.

“The former president is a offender,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he earned “shameful, demeaning handling”.

Potential Jail Conditions

Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which currently holds about thousands of inmates, his more likely destination looks to be a close jail for officers and other “particular” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

His potential cell are much more adequate than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro enjoyed while living in the stunning presidential palace, approximately a short distance away.

Based on reports, the room Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha is about 24 sq metres – about the size of two parking spaces – and contains a 130 square foot WC with a shower and a 130 square foot balcony. “The ex-president might be permitted to have a set and even a small fridge in his cell as long as they were provided by his family,” the report stated.

Partisan Comments

Senator Lucas condemned the rumoured idea to send the former leader to Papuda as “a type of revenge” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his outcome in the {