Brasilia — For many politicians, a jail sentence means the end of your career, but not for legislator Celso Jacob. Each day, he heads to Brazil’s National Congress — straight from prison. He gets up at 5am in the Papuda jail near Brasilia and waits for a car to take him to work. In the evening he returns and changes from his suit back into white prisoner’s overalls. "I am imprisoned, but I am not a prisoner," says the 60-year-old, on day release as he serves a seven-year jail term for administrative fraud when he was a mayor. Many convicts are allowed to work in Brazil under such partial release arrangements. But Jacob is the only member of Brazil’s Congress known to have been allowed to keep working in such a situation. Under the partially open prison regime, he is forbidden from going to the cinema, shopping or visiting his family. But he is allowed to go to Congress and vote on the nation’s laws and big political issues of the day. That includes casting a vote in support of Presi...
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