🔗 Share this article

He contested the legal system and the legal system triumphed.

A couple of months following being handed a quarter-century plus sentence for trying to “destroy” Brazil’s democratic institutions, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally appears headed to prison.

Expected Imprisonment

The convicted plotter – who has been subject to home confinement in his estate while a series of judicial steps and challenges unfold – is widely expected to be jailed in the next few days, during increasing speculation that he will be sent to a notorious maximum security facility.

Previous Remarks on Prisoners

Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade political career, the far-right former soldier displayed scant mercy for the country's inmates.

“Why should we give these dirtbags a good life?” he once pondered. “They should just get fucked, full-fucking-stop. That’s what I reckon.”

At another time, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to end up in prison, all you have to do is to avoid rape, abduction or rob.”

Jail Location Speculation

However the idea of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has shocked supporters, four of whom this week toured the complex in an apparent effort to dissuade the judiciary from sending him there.

The senator, a politician from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was among that group, claimed he anticipated the septuagenarian leader to be imprisoned in the next 10 days and worried his location could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe intestinal problems – the result of a life-threatening stabbing during the last presidential campaign – meant it would be risky to keep the ex-leader there. “His condition is highly critical. He won’t be able to manage if they take him to Papuda … It would be awful,” said the senator, who also voiced anxiety about packed cells and the quality of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells containing forty inmates: “That’s almost one square metre per prisoner.

“We conversed to the inmates and they complain, unsurprisingly, of the horrible meals,” remarked the senator.

Supporters Speak Out

He is not the lone figure voicing opinions before the former president’s anticipated incarceration.

Authoring in a leading daily, one more backer, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” end to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” time in office and alleged Brazil was about to witness “the greatest wrong in its record”.

“This is an injustice that erodes the souls of many people in Brazil,” Wajngarten wrote.

Divided General Response

This could be accurate due to the substantial following Bolsonaro retains on the right-wing. But his predicted jailing has also pleased the hearts of millions other people who feel he ought to be incarcerated for planning to block the elected leader from assuming office – and also conspiring to have him assassinated.

Congressman Otoni, a politician for the current president's Workers’ party, said: “No one desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be put in segregation. Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We wish him to obtain respectful treatment – but proper handling behind bars. He can’t persist being his personal jailer for his lifetime.”

He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have spent years praising the harsh conditions of inmates, had abruptly realized to their rights. “Only now has the far-right – which has consistently claimed that human rights were not for criminals – decided to tour a jail to learn what circumstances are truly like,” he stated.

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

Potential Jail Conditions

In spite of talk that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which currently contains about thousands of inmates, his more likely assigned facility seems to be a nearby jail for police officers and other “unique” prisoners referred to as Papudinha (Little Papuda).

The accommodations are much more pleasant than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro had while residing in the stunning presidential palace, approximately a short distance away.

Based on sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate reside in in Papudinha is about 24 sq metres – about the size of two parking spaces – and contains a 12 square meter restroom with a shower and a 12 square meter balcony. “The ex-president might be permitted to have a television and even a small fridge in his cell as long as they were supplied by his loved ones,” the report suggested.

Ideological Comments

Senator Lucas condemned the talked-about plan to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a type of retaliation” on the part of the presiding magistrate who led Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will decide his outcome in the {