Jailhouse Shock: The Ex-President Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars

He battled the law and the law prevailed.

Two months after being handed a 27-year sentence for attempting to “annihilate” the nation's political system, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally looks destined for incarceration.

Anticipated Incarceration

The found-guilty plotter – who has been under home confinement in his estate while a set of judicial steps and petitions play out – is largely predicted to be jailed in the next few days, during mounting rumors that he will be transferred to a well-known high-security facility.

Past Statements on Convicts

Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade time in politics, the far-right former soldier showed minimal sympathy for the country's inmates.

“What’s the need to give those dirtbags a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be fucked, period. That's my view.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to wind up there, you simply need is not rape, abduction or theft.”

Incarceration Destination Debate

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, several of whom this week visited the facility in an apparent attempt to dissuade the high court from banishing him there.

Izalci Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was among that group, said he predicted the elderly leader to be incarcerated in the coming fortnight and was concerned his location could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s severe digestive issues – the outcome of a near-fatal stabbing during the last political campaign – implied it would be dangerous to keep the former president there. “His health is extremely serious. He won’t be able to manage if they take him to Papuda … It will be terrible,” he added, who also worried about cramped cells and the quality of jail cuisine.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas noted observing cells containing 40 prisoners: “That is almost one square meter per prisoner.

“We spoke to the inmates and they grumble, of course, of the terrible cuisine,” added the senator.

Supporters Voice Concerns

The senator isn't the only voice speaking out prior to the ex-leader's anticipated incarceration.

Penning in a prominent daily, a different supporter, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “brutal” finale to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and alleged Brazil was about to see “the biggest wrong in its history”.

“It represents an unfairness that gnaws the souls of countless of Brazilians,” the former minister said.

Mixed Popular Response

This could be accurate considering the significant following Bolsonaro maintains on the Brazilian right. But his predicted jailing has also pleased the hearts of millions individuals who believe he ought to be imprisoned for conspiring to stop the elected leader from taking power – and also conspiring to have him assassinated.

Congressman Otoni, a representative for the current leader's allied group, commented: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be sent in a hole. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. No one desires Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We wish him to receive proper care – but respectful care behind bars. He cannot continue being his own prison warden for his whole life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time praising the tough treatment of inmates, had suddenly woken up to their rights. “Recently has the extreme right – which has always asserted that human rights should not be for lawbreakers – chosen to visit a prison to learn what situations are really like,” he stated.

“He is a lawbreaker,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, demeaning conduct”.

Potential Jail Conditions

Regardless of rumors that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which presently holds about 14,000 prisoners, his probable assigned facility appears to be a nearby jail for law enforcement and other “particular” prisoners known as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

Its cells are far more adequate than those in the main prison, although still a world away from the luxury Bolsonaro had while residing in the impressive presidential palace, around 12 miles away.

According to information, the cell Bolsonaro could likely reside in in Papudinha measures about 260 square feet – approximately the area of vehicle spaces – and includes a 130 square foot WC with a shower and a 130 square foot veranda. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a set and also a cooler in his cell as long as they were provided by his family,” sources indicated.

Ideological Comments

He condemned the speculated proposal to send the ex-president to Papuda as “an act of payback” on the part of the judicial authority who oversaw Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will decide his fate in the {

Lori Reynolds
Lori Reynolds

A network engineer with over a decade of experience in designing scalable infrastructure solutions for enterprise clients.