The gesture reopened an old legal debate. What kind of reading actually counts toward reducing a sentence in the Brazilian prison system? The answer is unequivocal.

Games, entertainment, and religious texts do not generate any reduction.

The regulations of the National Council of Justice stipulate that only literary, philosophical, or scientific works can be used in the study-based remission program.

Furthermore, the inmate must write an original review, which would then be evaluated by educators linked to the system.

Each approved work can reduce up to four days of sentence, with no annual limit, provided the prison unit has the program.

In the case of Bolsonaro, sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempted coup, nothing he has done so far falls under this procedure.

News outlets report that the far-right politician was in his cell at the Federal Police Superintendency in Brasilia, reading the Bible, a practice valued by his allies for its spiritual significance, but one that has no legal repercussions.

Nor do the word searches offered by Jair Renan, one of his sons, have any legal standing.

abo/jav/ro/ocs