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He fought the legal system and the law won.

Two months following being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “eradicate” Brazil’s political system, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro finally looks jail-bound.

Expected Incarceration

The adjudicated plotter – who's been subject to house arrest in his estate while a series of judicial steps and challenges proceed – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the coming days, during growing rumors that he will be moved to a well-known maximum security penitentiary.

Previous Comments on Prisoners

Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year public life, the conservative ex- paratrooper displayed minimal compassion for Brazil’s prison population.

“Why should we offer those lowlifes a good life?” he once pondered. “They should just get messed, period. That's my view.”

At another time, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to end up in prison, the only thing required is to avoid sexual assault, abduction or theft.”

Prison Location Speculation

But the idea of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has horrified backers, four of whom this week visited the complex in an obvious attempt to dissuade the supreme court from banishing him there.

Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was part of that quartet, said he expected the 70-year-old leader to be jailed in the coming fortnight and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe gut issues – the result of a life-threatening knife attack during the 2018 presidential political campaign – signified it would be hazardous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His [health] situation is highly critical. He will not be able to handle it if they move him to Papuda … It would be terrible,” he added, who also expressed concern about cramped cells and the quality of prison meals.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas remembered witnessing cells holding forty prisoners: “That is virtually one meter squared per detainee.

“We conversed to the prisoners and they complain, of course, of the terrible food,” remarked the senator.

Supporters React

He is not the only voice speaking out ahead of the ex-leader's expected imprisonment.

Authoring in a major newspaper, a different supporter, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “brutal” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” political career and alleged Brazil was about to witness “the largest unfairness in its record”.

“It represents an injustice that erodes the souls of countless people in Brazil,” he stated.

Divided General Reaction

This could be correct given the significant following Bolsonaro holds on the Brazilian right. Yet his anticipated jailing has also warmed the feelings of numerous individuals who think he should be jailed for conspiring to prevent the incoming president from assuming office – and additionally conspiring to have him murdered.

The lawmaker, a congressman for the incumbent president's Workers’ party, stated: “Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be put in a hole. No one wants Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. No one wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to get proper treatment – but proper care in prison. He must not persist being his own prison warden for his entire life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have spent years applauding the harsh handling of inmates, had suddenly become aware to their privileges. “Just now has the far-right – which has consistently claimed that civil liberties are not for offenders – decided to visit a prison to discover what conditions are really like,” he stated.

“He is a offender,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, demeaning treatment”.

Possible Prison Environment

Regardless of rumors that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which now contains about 14,000 prisoners, his expected assigned facility appears to be a nearby penitentiary for law enforcement and other “special” prisoners referred to as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

His potential cell are far more adequate than those in the primary facility, although still a world away from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while occupying the stunning presidential palace, about a short distance away.

According to reports, the room Bolsonaro could expect to inhabit in Papudinha is about 24 square meters – about the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and features a 12 sq metre WC with a shower and a 12 square meter terrace. “Bolsonaro would be allowed to have a TV and even a cooler in his room as long as they were donated by his family,” sources indicated.

Political Responses

Senator Lucas criticized the talked-about idea to send the former leader to Papuda as “an act of revenge” on the part of the judicial authority who led Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will rule on his future in the {