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He contested justice and the legal system won.

Two months subsequent to being handed a quarter-century plus sentence for trying to “annihilate” Brazil’s political system, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro finally appears destined for incarceration.

Expected Incarceration

The convicted plotter – who had been under home confinement in his estate while a series of judicial steps and petitions unfold – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the near future, during mounting rumors that he will be sent to a well-known maximum security prison.

Previous Comments on Convicts

Over Bolsonaro’s long public life, the far-right former paratrooper displayed minimal mercy for the country's prison population.

“What’s the need to give these scoundrels a comfortable existence?” he once pondered. “They ought to simply be messed, period. That's my opinion.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro stated: “Unless you desire to wind up in prison, all you have to do is to avoid sexual assault, kidnap or rob.”

Jail Facility Debate

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has appalled backers, several of whom this week toured the prison in an apparent effort to discourage the supreme court from transferring him there.

Izalci Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s allied group who was part of that quartet, claimed he expected the septuagenarian politician to be jailed in the next 10 days and feared his destination could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s acute digestive issues – the outcome of a life-threatening knife attack during the 2018 presidential political campaign – meant it would be dangerous to keep the one-time head of state there. “His [health] situation is extremely serious. He will not be able to handle it if they send him to Papuda … It would be awful,” he added, who also worried about packed cells and the quality of prison meals.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted observing cells holding 40 detainees: “It's virtually one meter squared per detainee.

“We spoke to the prisoners and they grumble, unsurprisingly, of the terrible cuisine,” continued the senator.

Supporters Voice Concerns

Lucas is not the only voice expressing views prior to the one-time head of state's expected detention.

Writing in a leading publication, one more backer, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “brutal” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” political career and claimed Brazil was about to experience “the biggest unfairness in its record”.

“It represents an unfairness that gnaws the spirits of many of Brazilians,” Wajngarten wrote.

Varied Public Response

It is possibly correct due to the substantial backing Bolsonaro maintains on the right-wing. Yet his anticipated imprisonment has also warmed the spirits of many others who believe he ought to be jailed for planning to stop the incoming president from becoming president – and also plotting to have him killed.

Reimont Otoni, a politician for the current president's political party, said: “Not a soul desires Bolsonaro to be put in a dark cell. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to be placed in segregation. Nobody desires Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We wish him to obtain respectful care – but proper care in prison. He can’t carry on being his self-appointed guard for his whole life.”

Otoni was struck by how Bolsonaro supporters, who have spent years applauding the harsh conditions of convicts, had unexpectedly realized to their entitlements. “Recently has the conservative fringe – which has repeatedly argued that human rights are not for offenders – chosen to inspect a penitentiary to learn what circumstances are really like,” he stated.

“He is a lawbreaker,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he earned “degrading, insulting conduct”.

Potential Prison Facilities

Despite rumors that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which presently houses about fourteen thousand detainees, his expected destination looks to be a adjacent penitentiary for law enforcement and other “particular” inmates called Papudinha (Small Papuda).

His potential cell are far more comfortable than those in the larger jail, although still a distant from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while residing in the stunning presidential palace, approximately a short distance away.

Based on sources, the room Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha has about 24 square meters – about the area of a couple of car spots – and contains a 12 sq metre WC with a water facility and a 12 sq metre veranda. “Bolsonaro would be authorized to have a television and additionally a small fridge in his room as long as they were donated by his loved ones,” sources indicated.

Political Responses

He criticized the talked-about plan to send the former leader to Papuda as “a form of retaliation” on the part of the supreme court judge who led Bolsonaro’s coup trial and will decide his outcome in the {