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He contested the legal system and the legal system prevailed.

A couple of months following getting a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “eradicate” Brazil’s democracy, one-time leader Jair Bolsonaro finally seems headed to prison.

Anticipated Imprisonment

The convicted coup-monger – who had been living under home confinement in his estate while a set of legal procedures and appeals play out – is largely predicted to be incarcerated in the coming days, amid mounting talk that he will be transferred to a notorious high-security penitentiary.

Past Comments on Convicts

Throughout Bolsonaro’s long time in politics, the far-right former paratrooper displayed scant compassion for the country's prison population.

“What’s the need to offer these scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he previously wondered. “They should just get fucked, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”

At another time, Bolsonaro declared: “Unless you desire to finish there, the only thing required is not sexual assault, kidnap or rob.”

Incarceration Location Discussion

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda prison high-security prison in Brasília has horrified allies, a group of four this week inspected the facility in an apparent attempt to discourage the supreme court from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s political party who was part of that quartet, stated he expected the 70-year-old politician to be imprisoned in the next 10 days and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s serious digestive ailments – the consequence of a near-fatal knife attack during the 2018 election race – meant it would be risky to keep the former president there. “His health is highly critical. He won’t be able to handle it if they send him to Papuda … It will be awful,” he added, who also voiced anxiety about overcrowded cells and the condition of prison meals.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas noted observing cells containing four dozen prisoners: “That is almost one square metre per prisoner.

“We conversed to the convicts and they complain, unsurprisingly, of the horrible food,” added the senator.

Backers React

He is not the lone figure expressing views ahead of the former president’s predicted incarceration.

Writing in a prominent publication, one more backer, the former government official Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “harsh” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” political career and alleged Brazil was about to witness “the greatest wrong in its history”.

“This is an injustice that erodes the souls of many of Brazilians,” he stated.

Divided Popular Reaction

This could be correct due to the substantial following Bolsonaro maintains on the conservative side. However his anticipated incarceration has also pleased the hearts of millions others who think he ought to be incarcerated for plotting to stop his successor from becoming president – and also plotting to have him killed.

Congressman Otoni, a representative for the sitting administration's Workers’ party, stated: “No one wants Bolsonaro to be sent in a dark cell. Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in solitary confinement. Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We wish him to obtain proper care – but proper care while incarcerated. He can’t persist being his personal jailer for his entire life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years applauding the severe conditions of convicts, had unexpectedly become aware to their privileges. “Only now has the far-right – which has repeatedly asserted that human rights are not for lawbreakers – opted to visit a penitentiary to discover what conditions are actually like,” he said.

“The former president is a offender,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he deserved “humiliating, insulting handling”.

Likely Jail Conditions

Regardless of talk that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which presently houses about 14,000 prisoners, his more likely location appears to be a close penitentiary for officers and other “particular” prisoners known as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

Its cells are far more adequate than those in the main prison, although nevertheless a far cry from the luxury Bolsonaro experienced while living in the impressive official residence, about 20 kilometers away.

According to sources, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha has about 24 square meters – roughly the size of a couple of car spots – and features a 12 square meter WC with a bathing area and a 12 square meter veranda. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a set and even a cooler in his cell as long as they were donated by his family,” the report indicated.

Ideological Reactions

The lawmaker denounced the rumoured proposal to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of payback” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his outcome in the {