🔗 Share this article

He fought the law and the law won.

Sixty days following receiving a quarter-century plus sentence for trying to “annihilate” the nation's democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally looks destined for incarceration.

Anticipated Imprisonment

The adjudicated plotter – who's been living under home confinement in his mansion while a set of court processes and appeals proceed – is widely expected to be imprisoned in the coming days, amid growing talk that he will be transferred to a notorious top-security facility.

Historical Comments on Inmates

Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade time in politics, the conservative former military man displayed scant sympathy for Brazil’s jailed individuals.

“What’s the need to provide these dirtbags a easy time?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be messed, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to wind up there, the only thing required is to avoid rape, kidnap or theft.”

Incarceration Destination Debate

But the prospect of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has appalled supporters, several of whom this week visited the facility in an seeming effort to prevent the high court from banishing him there.

The senator, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, said he expected the septuagenarian figure to be incarcerated in the coming fortnight and was concerned his location could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious gut issues – the outcome of a near-fatal assault during the 2018 presidential campaign – implied it would be hazardous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His health is very grave. He cannot to manage if they move him to Papuda … It would be dreadful,” he added, who also worried about overcrowded cells and the quality of jail cuisine.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas remembered witnessing cells accommodating 40 detainees: “That is almost one square metre per prisoner.

“We talked to the inmates and they grumble, of course, of the awful food,” added the senator.

Allies React

The senator isn't the sole person speaking out ahead of the one-time head of state's predicted incarceration.

Penning in a major daily, another ally, the former communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “brutal” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” public service and alleged Brazil was about to see “the largest political injustice in its history”.

“It is an wrong that erodes the spirits of countless of Brazilians,” he stated.

Varied Popular Reaction

This could be correct given the considerable backing Bolsonaro maintains on the conservative side. But his predicted jailing has also warmed the spirits of numerous other people who think he deserves to be imprisoned for planning to prevent the incoming president from becoming president – and additionally scheming to have him murdered.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the current leader's allied group, said: “Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be placed in a hole. No one desires Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. No one desires Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We want him to receive dignified handling – but dignified treatment behind bars. He cannot carry on being his personal jailer for his whole life.”

The congressman noted how Bolsonaro supporters, who have long celebrating the harsh treatment of convicts, had abruptly become aware to their entitlements. “Just now has the far-right – which has consistently asserted that human rights are not for criminals – chosen to inspect a jail to discover what conditions are truly like,” he stated.

“The former president is a criminal,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he merited “degrading, degrading conduct”.

Likely Incarceration Environment

In spite of rumors that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now houses about 14,000 prisoners, his expected destination seems to be a adjacent prison for officers and other “special” inmates known as Papudinha (Little Papuda).

The accommodations are much more adequate than those in the larger jail, although still a far cry from the luxury Bolsonaro had while residing in the impressive presidential palace, approximately 12 miles away.

According to information, the accommodation Bolsonaro could expect to inhabit in Papudinha measures about 260 square feet – approximately the size of a couple of car spots – and contains a 12 sq metre restroom with a water facility and a 130 square foot terrace. “Bolsonaro would be authorized to have a television and also a minibar in his room as long as they were donated by his family,” sources indicated.

Ideological Responses

He denounced the speculated idea to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of revenge” on the part of the presiding magistrate who presided over Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will decide his future in the {