Jailhouse Shock: The FormerPresident Bolsonaro Faces Time Behind Bars

He battled justice and justice prevailed.

Sixty days following receiving a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “annihilate” the nation's political system, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro at last appears jail-bound.

Anticipated Incarceration

The found-guilty coup-monger – who's been under residential detention in his estate while a series of judicial steps and challenges unfold – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the coming days, amidst growing speculation that he will be moved to a infamous top-security facility.

Previous Comments on Inmates

Over Bolsonaro’s 40-year public life, the conservative former military man showed minimal mercy for Brazil’s jailed individuals.

“What’s the need to give these lowlifes a good life?” he once mused. “They ought to simply be screwed, period. That’s what I reckon.”

At another time, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to end up behind bars, all you have to do is not rape, abduction or rob.”

Prison Location Debate

Yet the idea of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, several of whom this week toured the facility in an seeming attempt to discourage the judiciary from banishing him there.

Izalci Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s political party who was among that group, said he expected the septuagenarian figure to be imprisoned in the next 10 days and was concerned his destination could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious digestive issues – the outcome of a life-threatening assault during the last political campaign – meant it would be hazardous to keep the former president there. “His health is very grave. He cannot to cope if they send him to Papuda … It could be terrible,” said the senator, who also expressed concern about overcrowded cells and the condition of jail cuisine.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas recalled seeing cells holding forty prisoners: “It's virtually one square metre per detainee.

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

Allies Speak Out

Lucas is not the only voice voicing opinions prior to the former president’s expected imprisonment.

Authoring in a major newspaper, another ally, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “harsh” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and claimed Brazil was about to experience “the largest unfairness in its record”.

“It represents an injustice that erodes the hearts of many Brazilian citizens,” the former minister said.

Divided Popular Reaction

This could be accurate considering the substantial support Bolsonaro holds on the right-wing. But his expected imprisonment has also gladdened the feelings of numerous others who feel he ought to be imprisoned for conspiring to stop his successor from taking power – and even conspiring to have him killed.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the incumbent leader's political party, said: “Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in a hole. Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be sent in solitary confinement. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to lie on concrete. We desire him to get proper handling – but dignified care in prison. He can’t persist being his own prison warden for his entire life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro allies, who have long praising the harsh conditions of convicts, had abruptly realized to their rights. “Recently has the far-right – which has always asserted that basic rights were not for criminals – decided to tour a jail to find out what situations are really like,” he remarked.

“Bolsonaro is a lawbreaker,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he deserved “degrading, degrading treatment”.

Potential Incarceration Facilities

In spite of rumors that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which currently contains about fourteen thousand inmates, his expected destination seems to be a adjacent penitentiary for police officers and other “particular” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Little Papuda).

His potential cell are much more comfortable than those in the larger jail, although nevertheless a world away from the comfort Bolsonaro experienced while living in the spectacular leader's home, around a short distance away.

According to sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could expect to reside in in Papudinha measures about 260 square feet – roughly the dimensions of two parking spaces – and features a 130 square foot WC with a bathing area and a 12 square meter terrace. “The ex-president might be permitted to have a TV and also a cooler in his cell as long as they were supplied by his relatives,” the report suggested.

Partisan Responses

He criticized the speculated plan to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a form of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who presided over Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will rule on his outcome in the {