Prison Surprise: Brazil's FormerPresident Jair Bolsonaro Confronts Life Behind Bars

He fought the law and the law prevailed.

Two months after being handed a quarter-century plus sentence for seeking to “annihilate” the nation's political system, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro finally seems destined for incarceration.

Imminent Incarceration

The convicted coup-monger – who has been subject to residential detention in his estate while a series of court processes and challenges unfold – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the coming days, amid increasing talk that he will be transferred to a notorious top-security penitentiary.

Historical Statements on Prisoners

Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year public life, the right-wing former paratrooper displayed little compassion for the country's prison population.

“What’s the need to offer those lowlifes a easy time?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be messed, period. That’s what I reckon.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to end up in prison, the only thing required is not sexual assault, abduction or rob.”

Prison Destination Speculation

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, four of whom this week toured the complex in an seeming attempt to dissuade the high court from transferring him there.

Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, claimed he predicted the elderly leader to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and feared his location could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s serious intestinal ailments – the outcome of a life-threatening stabbing during the 2018 political campaign – meant it would be risky to keep the ex-leader there. “His health is extremely serious. He won’t be able to handle it if they take him to Papuda … It could be awful,” said the senator, who also expressed concern about cramped cells and the condition of inmate food.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells containing forty detainees: “It's virtually one square meter per prisoner.

“We conversed to the convicts and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the awful cuisine,” added the senator.

Supporters React

Lucas is not the sole person expressing views ahead of the ex-leader's anticipated detention.

Penning in a major daily, a different supporter, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “harsh” end to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to see “the biggest political injustice in its past”.

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

Mixed Popular Response

It is possibly correct due to the substantial backing Bolsonaro holds on the conservative side. However his anticipated incarceration has also pleased the spirits of numerous others who believe he ought to be incarcerated for plotting to block the elected leader from taking power – and even plotting to have him murdered.

Reimont Otoni, a politician for the current leader's allied group, stated: “No one wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in a dark cell. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be placed in solitary confinement. No one wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to lie on concrete. We desire him to obtain dignified care – but proper treatment while incarcerated. He can’t persist being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time applauding the harsh treatment of inmates, had suddenly become aware to their rights. “Only now has the extreme right – which has repeatedly argued that human rights should not be for offenders – chosen to inspect a jail to discover what conditions are truly like,” he remarked.

“Bolsonaro is a offender,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he earned “humiliating, insulting treatment”.

Potential Jail Facilities

Despite rumors that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which currently contains about fourteen thousand prisoners, his more likely destination appears to be a nearby penitentiary for officers and other “particular” detainees referred to as Papudinha (Little Papuda).

Its cells are considerably more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although still a distant from the luxury Bolsonaro had while occupying the spectacular official residence, about 12 miles away.

According to information, the accommodation Bolsonaro could likely occupy in Papudinha has about 24 square meters – approximately the size of a couple of car spots – and contains a 12 square meter restroom with a water facility and a 130 square foot terrace. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a TV and also a cooler in his cell as long as they were donated by his family,” the report stated.

Partisan Comments

He criticized the rumoured idea to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a type of revenge” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will determine his outcome in the {