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He contested the legal system and the law won.

Two months subsequent to being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for trying to “destroy” Brazil’s democracy, former president Jair Bolsonaro at last appears headed to prison.

Imminent Jailing

The adjudicated instigator – who has been subject to house arrest in his mansion while a number of judicial steps and petitions play out – is largely predicted to be jailed in the next few days, amid growing talk that he will be moved to a notorious top-security prison.

Past Remarks on Convicts

Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year political career, the right-wing former paratrooper showed minimal mercy for the country's prison population.

“Why should we offer those dirtbags a easy time?” he previously wondered. “They deserve to be fucked, end of story. That's my view.”

At another time, Bolsonaro stated: “If you don’t want to wind up behind bars, all you have to do is not sexual assault, kidnap or rob.”

Prison Facility Discussion

However the idea of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda prison maximum security prison in Brasília has appalled backers, several of whom this week visited the prison in an apparent bid to discourage the high court from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a politician from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was part of that quartet, claimed he anticipated the 70-year-old leader to be incarcerated in the next 10 days and feared his location could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s severe digestive ailments – the outcome of a near-fatal knife attack during the 2018 political campaign – implied it would be dangerous to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He won’t be able to cope if they move him to Papuda … It could be dreadful,” he added, who also expressed concern about cramped cells and the condition of jail cuisine.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas recalled witnessing cells holding four dozen inmates: “That is almost one meter squared per detainee.

“We talked to the prisoners and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the horrible meals,” continued the senator.

Allies Voice Concerns

Lucas is not the sole person expressing views ahead of the former president’s predicted imprisonment.

Writing in a major newspaper, a different supporter, the ex- government official Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “harsh” finale to Bolsonaro’s “impeccable” time in office and asserted Brazil was about to witness “the biggest unfairness in its record”.

“This is an wrong that erodes the souls of millions Brazilian citizens,” he stated.

Mixed Popular Reaction

This could be true considering the significant backing Bolsonaro maintains on the conservative side. But his expected jailing has also warmed the hearts of millions other people who believe he ought to be imprisoned for plotting to block the incoming president from becoming president – and additionally plotting to have him killed.

Reimont Otoni, a representative for the sitting president's Workers’ party, said: “Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be put in a hole. No one desires Bolsonaro to be placed in segregation. No one desires Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We want him to get proper treatment – but proper care behind bars. He can’t persist being his own prison warden for his lifetime.”

He observed how Bolsonaro allies, who have long praising the severe treatment of prisoners, had abruptly become aware to their entitlements. “Recently has the conservative fringe – which has always asserted that basic rights are not for lawbreakers – opted to tour a penitentiary to learn what situations are truly like,” he stated.

“Bolsonaro is a criminal,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he merited “humiliating, insulting handling”.

Potential Incarceration Facilities

Despite speculation that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which now holds about thousands of prisoners, his more likely destination seems to be a nearby penitentiary for police officers and other “unique” inmates called Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

Its cells are considerably more comfortable than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a world away from the luxury Bolsonaro experienced while residing in the stunning presidential palace, around 12 miles away.

According to reports, the room Bolsonaro could likely inhabit in Papudinha measures about 260 square feet – about the area of two parking spaces – and contains a 12 square meter bathroom with a shower and a 12 square meter veranda. “The ex-president might be allowed to have a television and additionally a cooler in his quarters as long as they were donated by his relatives,” sources suggested.

Political Reactions

Senator Lucas denounced the talked-about proposal to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of revenge” on the part of the judicial authority who led Bolsonaro’s legal case and will determine his future in the {