Possible destinations of the former president (PL), and a Military Police unit known as “Papudinha”, located in the same region, received authorities, leaders of criminal factions, politicians involved in the and da scandals and people arrested during the January 8 attacks.
In the case of the prison, there are recent records of benefits for famous inmates and attempts, some successful, to escape their inmates — such as PDF 1 (Federal District Penitentiary nº 1), intended for prisoners in a closed regime.
Prisoners live with overcrowding and precarious conditions, such as leaks, poor ventilation and even spoiled food, produced by the public defender offices of the Federal District and the Union, the Public Ministry of the Federal District and the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship.
According to Seape-DF (Federal District Penitentiary Administration Secretariat), the five buildings that make up Papuda have a maximum capacity of 8,072 prisoners. There are, however, 14,221 people held in prisons — a capacity of 156%.
The possibility of Bolsonaro being taken to the Brasília Penitentiary Complex has mobilized prison managers to evaluate the most suitable locations for the .
Seape stated, in a note, that “none of the Complex’s penal units linked [à secretaria] It has rooms adapted to the characteristics understood as a General Staff room.” This is one of the reasons for members of the Supreme Court to evaluate Bolsonaro’s detention in the 19th Military Police Battalion of the DF, the “Papudinha”.
Apprehension about the possible arrest of the former president in the unit grew after the minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) sent his chief of staff to the prison to remove it.
Moraes’ assistant visited three different locations in the penitentiary complex. Two of them were inside PDF 1, including a block intended for prisoners who are vulnerable. The location has less crowded cells that are more easily adaptable for special prisons. It is considered the maximum security area of Papuda, with more surveillance from criminal police officers.
It was there that the former minister, former deputy Mário Junqueira and the former senator and businessman were arrested. The trio was the target of complaints for having been caught with prohibited food and money beyond the permitted limits.
They were in cells at the Provisional Detention Center and went to PDF 1 to spend time in solitary confinement. There, the politicians were kept in individual cells measuring six square meters, with more surveillance and fewer rights.
Geddel Vieira Lima was convicted by the Supreme Court in 2019. He was tried after the Federal Police found reais and dollars in suitcases and boxes in his apartment in Salvador.
Mário Junqueira was arrested on charges of obstructing the Lava Jato investigation for the benefit of Progressistas politicians. Luiz Estevão served time for fraud in the construction of the São Paulo Regional Labor Court.
PDF 1 also housed the monthly operator Marcos Valério and the former deputy Natan Donadon — the first sitting deputy arrested by the STF since the country’s redemocratization.
Donadon was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the crimes of conspiracy and embezzlement. He ended up receiving a pardon for his sentence in the Christmas pardon granted by then-president Michel Temer, in 2017.
The president of Bolsonaro’s party, , also stayed in Papuda in 2014, convicted of passive corruption and money laundering.
Papuda also housed PT members José Genoino, José Dirceu and Delúbio Soares, convicted in the Mensalão and Petrolão scandals, during Lula’s first term as President of the Republic. The three were detained at the CIR (Internment and Reeducation Center).
Other famous inmates at the prison were Carlinhos Cachoeira, accused of leading illegal slot machine exploitation and convicted of corruption; Italian activist Cesare Battisti, convicted of murders in the 1970s; money changer Lúcio Funaro, arrested by Lava Jato; and Marcola, leader of the PCC (First Command of the Capital), who spent a few days there in 2001.
The Papuda Penitentiary Complex is made up of five large detention centers and is located approximately 20 km from the center of Brasília. The prison is divided between the Federal District Penitentiaries 1, 2 and 4, the Internment and Reeducation Center and the Provisional Detention Center.
At the entrance to Fazenda Papuda is the 19th Military Police Battalion of the Federal District — known as “Papudinha”. The place is used for preventive detention of police officers and people entitled to special prison, with an individual cell. This was the case of former Minister of Justice Anderson Torres, arrested preventively in 2023.
In the last decade, Papuda has seen a huge escape. Ten prisoners managed to escape from PDF 1 in February 2016. The absence of the inmates was only noticed during the procedure for counting the inmates.
There have been other escape attempts in recent years, but with less impact. In February this year, a 62-year-old man managed to leave Papuda after sawing through the bathroom bars. He was only found by authorities in Goiás and ended up being killed by local police.
