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He contested the law and justice prevailed.

A couple of months after receiving a 27-year sentence for attempting to “eradicate” Brazil’s democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro now seems jail-bound.

Imminent Jailing

The adjudicated instigator – who has been subject to home confinement in his residence while a number of legal procedures and challenges unfold – is widely expected to be imprisoned in the near future, amidst increasing talk that he will be transferred to a notorious maximum security penitentiary.

Historical Comments on Inmates

Throughout Bolsonaro’s 40-year time in politics, the far-right former military man displayed minimal mercy for Brazil’s prison population.

“Why should we offer these scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They deserve to be fucked, end of story. That's my view.”

At another time, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to wind up in prison, you simply need is to avoid rape, abduction or rob.”

Prison Facility Debate

But the idea of Bolsonaro himself winding up in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has appalled backers, several of whom this week toured the complex in an apparent effort to discourage the judiciary from banishing him there.

Senator Lucas, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was one of the visitors, said he anticipated the septuagenarian politician to be incarcerated in the next 10 days and feared his location could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s acute digestive ailments – the consequence of a near-fatal assault during the last political campaign – implied it would be hazardous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His health is highly critical. He won’t be able to cope if they take him to Papuda … It will be terrible,” he added, who also expressed concern about overcrowded cells and the standard of inmate food.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas remembered seeing cells accommodating 40 detainees: “That’s almost one square meter per detainee.

“We spoke to the convicts and they grumble, unsurprisingly, of the horrible food,” continued the senator.

Supporters Voice Concerns

He is not the lone figure speaking out prior to the ex-leader's expected incarceration.

Writing in a major daily, another ally, the former communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” public service and claimed Brazil was about to witness “the greatest political injustice in its history”.

“This is an wrong that erodes the souls of countless of Brazilians,” the former minister said.

Divided General Reaction

This could be true given the considerable following Bolsonaro holds on the right-wing. Yet his expected imprisonment has also warmed the feelings of numerous other people who feel he ought to be jailed for planning to stop the elected leader from assuming office – and even conspiring to have him murdered.

Congressman Otoni, a congressman for the sitting president's allied group, said: “Not a soul wishes Bolsonaro to be put in a dungeon. No one desires Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. No one wishes Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We desire him to obtain proper handling – but respectful handling behind bars. He can’t persist being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro backers, who have for a long time praising the harsh handling of convicts, had unexpectedly become aware to their privileges. “Only now has the extreme right – which has consistently asserted that civil liberties should not be for lawbreakers – opted to visit a penitentiary to learn what conditions are truly like,” he remarked.

“He is a criminal,” Otoni insisted, but that did not mean he earned “humiliating, insulting handling”.

Likely Prison Conditions

Regardless of talk that Bolsonaro could be moved to Papuda, which presently contains about thousands of prisoners, his expected location seems to be a nearby jail for police officers and other “particular” prisoners known as Papudinha (Minor Papuda).

Its cells are much more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although still a far cry from the luxury Bolsonaro experienced while occupying the spectacular leader's home, around 12 miles away.

Based on sources, the room Bolsonaro could likely inhabit in Papudinha has about 260 square feet – about the dimensions of a couple of car spots – and includes a 12 square meter WC with a water facility and a 12 sq metre balcony. “Bolsonaro would be allowed to have a television and additionally a cooler in his room as long as they were donated by his relatives,” the report indicated.

Political Reactions

Senator Lucas criticized the rumoured idea to send the former leader to Papuda as “a type of payback” on the part of the judicial authority who led Bolsonaro’s proceedings and will rule on his future in the {