Jailhouse Shock: Brazil's FormerPresident Jair Bolsonaro Confronts Life Behind Bars

He fought the legal system and the legal system won.

Two months subsequent to getting a 27-year sentence for seeking to “annihilate” Brazil’s political system, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro at last appears jail-bound.

Anticipated Jailing

The convicted coup-monger – who's been subject to residential detention in his estate while a number of judicial steps and challenges play out – is widely expected to be jailed in the next few days, amid mounting talk that he will be sent to a infamous top-security facility.

Previous Statements on Convicts

Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the far-right ex- paratrooper exhibited minimal mercy for Brazil’s jailed individuals.

“What’s the need to provide these scoundrels a good life?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be messed, end of story. That's my view.”

At another time, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “Should you not wish to finish in prison, you simply need is not sexual assault, abduction or rob.”

Jail Location Debate

Yet the prospect of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has shocked backers, a group of four this week visited the facility in an seeming effort to discourage the supreme court from banishing him there.

Izalci Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s political party who was among that group, stated he anticipated the 70-year-old figure to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and was concerned his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe gut ailments – the outcome of a near-fatal stabbing during the last presidential campaign – implied it would be hazardous 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,” he commented, who also expressed concern about overcrowded cells and the condition of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas recalled observing cells containing forty prisoners: “That’s virtually one square meter per detainee.

“We talked to the prisoners and they complain, of course, of the terrible food,” continued the senator.

Supporters React

The senator isn't the lone figure voicing opinions before the ex-leader's expected imprisonment.

Penning in a leading daily, a different supporter, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” end to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” political career and alleged Brazil was about to experience “the largest political injustice in its record”.

“It represents an injustice that eats away the hearts of countless of Brazilians,” the former minister said.

Divided General Opinion

It is possibly correct due to the significant support Bolsonaro maintains on the Brazilian right. But his predicted incarceration has also pleased the feelings of many others who believe he ought to be jailed for conspiring to block the incoming president from becoming president – and additionally plotting to have him assassinated.

Reimont Otoni, a representative for the sitting president's political party, commented: “Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be sent in a hole. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in segregation. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We want him to obtain dignified treatment – but dignified handling while incarcerated. 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 harsh handling of convicts, had suddenly woken up to their privileges. “Recently has the extreme right – which has repeatedly argued that basic rights should not be for lawbreakers – decided to tour a prison to learn what circumstances are actually like,” he stated.

“Bolsonaro is a offender,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he earned “humiliating, degrading handling”.

Possible Jail Facilities

Regardless of speculation that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which presently contains about 14,000 inmates, his more likely assigned facility appears to be a close prison for officers and other “special” prisoners known as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

His potential cell are far more comfortable than those in the main prison, although still a distant from the comfort Bolsonaro experienced while residing in the stunning official residence, about 20 kilometers away.

According to sources, the cell Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha has about 260 square feet – roughly the dimensions of two parking spaces – and includes a 130 square foot WC with a water facility and a 12 sq metre terrace. “He could be authorized to have a television and also a minibar in his cell as long as they were supplied by his family,” the report indicated.

Ideological Responses

The lawmaker denounced the speculated idea to send the ex-president to Papuda as “an act of payback” on the part of the presiding magistrate who led Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will decide his future in the {