The overturn of the presidential veto on , which reduces the sentence of the former president () and others incriminated for the attempted coup d’état, will benefit more than 200 thousand people convicted of other crimes.
The veto was this Thursday (30), with the support of .
Currently, anyone under house arrest cannot reduce their sentence for study or work, except in specific cases, with the judge’s authorization. The text approved by Congress expands this possibility of redemption for everyone serving a sentence at home. The benefit is not automatic, but defenses can request it from the Court.
Around 235,000 people were serving their sentences at home on June 30, 2025, the most recent data available at the National Secretariat for Penal Policies of the Ministry of Justice. The number of prisoners in this modality has grown at an accelerated rate, mainly because of the pandemic, and .
Each work read corresponds to the redemption of four days of sentence and requires proof with the presentation of a report, which is evaluated by a committee. Program participants can review up to 12 books per year.
In other words, it is possible to reduce the sentence by up to 48 days within a 12-month period. Bolsonaro was arrested for the coup plot.
In the case of work, it is possible to reduce one day of sentence for every three days on duty.
The provision to allow prisoners in home confinement to be able to reduce their study and work efforts from their sentences was included by the deputy (Solidariedade-SP), rapporteur of the project in the Chamber.
The legislative change was part of serving his sentence at home due to his health condition and age. The former president, however, tried to break the electronic ankle bracelet, and only returned home in March.
The change is criticized by experts. Felippe Angeli, coordinator of the Justa platform, states that reducing the penalty for working or studying at home is already authorized by some courts, although it is not provided for in legislation. If it becomes law, its use will be expanded, which opens up the potential for fraud.
“Today everything is organized from custody by the State. The prisoner leaves the establishment and returns [após o trabalho/estudo] or in the closed regime, they have access to the possibility of work and education within the establishment. So, this is already recorded for the purposes of the redemption itself. In the home case, this information is not available, you will need very robust proof”, he says.
Angeli highlights that the change will require regulation to prevent fraud, considering that the home regime makes it difficult for the State to monitor the fences. “The problem is that because of one person [Bolsonaro]you are changing an entire system that will impact hundreds of thousands of people without knowing how you are going to do it, without greater debate.”
Lawyer Pierpaolo Bottini, who was a member of the National Council for Criminal and Penitentiary Policy, states that he is in favor of reducing the sentence, but that the way it is being instituted is a problem. “The institute alone is not bad, basically it is an instrument of resocialization. The point is that it cannot be case-by-case and come as part of a project that seeks to benefit a certain group of people”, he stated.
He says the text will require regulation and a broader debate on how to apply it. “I know it’s harder [do que no regime fechado ou semiaberto]but it is not impossible. He will need work that he can prove that he actually worked on or, in the case of a course, watch with the camera open”, he says.
Wanted by SheetPaulinho da Força stated that his legal advisor prepared the text and guaranteed that the project would only benefit Bolsonaro’s case, to allow the reduction of the sentence for studying under house arrest, and that it will not have a broader effect on the prison system.
The bill was approved by the Chamber by 291 votes to 148 and by 48 to 25 in , but was vetoed in full by the president (PT). This veto was overturned by the Legislature this Thursday, which means that the legislative changes are sent to the President of the Republic for promulgation.
Bolsonaro to the minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court) who could reduce the sentence with reading. Reports from the 19th Military Police Battalion in Papuda, a building known as “Papudinha”, however, show that he and, therefore, had no reduction in the number of days incarcerated.
