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He contested the law and the law triumphed.

Sixty days after being handed a twenty-seven-year sentence for attempting to “destroy” the nation's democratic institutions, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro now seems headed to prison.

Anticipated Incarceration

The found-guilty plotter – who has been under house arrest in his estate while a number of court processes and challenges play out – is largely predicted to be imprisoned in the coming days, amidst growing speculation that he will be sent to a well-known maximum security prison.

Past Statements on Inmates

During Bolsonaro’s four-decade time in politics, the far-right former soldier displayed minimal sympathy for Brazil’s prison population.

“What’s the need to give those lowlifes a good life?” he once pondered. “They deserve to be screwed, full-fucking-stop. That’s what I reckon.”

On another occasion, Bolsonaro declared: “If you don’t want to finish there, you simply need is to avoid rape, abduction or theft.”

Prison Destination Speculation

Yet the possibility of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda top-security prison in Brasília has appalled allies, several of whom this week inspected the facility in an obvious attempt to discourage the high court from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s Liberal party who was one of the visitors, said he predicted the 70-year-old leader to be imprisoned in the following week and a half and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.

He asserted Bolsonaro’s severe gut ailments – the outcome of a near-fatal stabbing during the last political campaign – meant it would be risky to keep the ex-leader there. “His condition is extremely serious. He cannot to manage if they take him to Papuda … It could be dreadful,” he added, who also worried about packed cells and the standard of inmate food.

While visiting Papuda, Lucas noted seeing cells accommodating 40 prisoners: “That’s virtually one meter squared per prisoner.

“We conversed to the prisoners and they protest, unsurprisingly, of the horrible cuisine,” remarked the senator.

Backers Speak Out

He is not the lone figure expressing views ahead of the ex-leader's anticipated imprisonment.

Penning in a leading newspaper, one more backer, the former cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, bemoaned the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” political career and asserted Brazil was about to witness “the biggest unfairness in its history”.

“This is an injustice that gnaws the souls of many people in Brazil,” Wajngarten wrote.

Divided General Response

This could be accurate due to the significant support Bolsonaro maintains on the conservative side. But his anticipated jailing has also gladdened the spirits of numerous other people who think he should be jailed for planning to prevent the elected leader from assuming office – and additionally conspiring to have him assassinated.

Reimont Otoni, a congressman for the incumbent administration's allied group, said: “Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be put in a hole. No one wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in segregation. Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to go hungry or for him to have to rest on hard ground. We wish him to receive respectful handling – but proper treatment behind bars. He cannot persist being his own prison warden for his whole life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro backers, who have spent years celebrating the tough treatment of convicts, had suddenly become aware to their rights. “Only now has the far-right – which has always claimed that human rights should not be for offenders – chosen to tour a penitentiary to learn what situations are truly like,” he remarked.

“Bolsonaro is a criminal,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he merited “shameful, degrading conduct”.

Likely Prison Environment

Regardless of rumors that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which currently houses about 14,000 detainees, his more likely assigned facility appears to be a close penitentiary for law enforcement and other “special” inmates referred to as Papudinha (Small Papuda).

The accommodations are far more comfortable than those in the main prison, although nonetheless a far cry from the luxury Bolsonaro had while occupying the impressive leader's home, about 20 kilometers away.

Based on sources, the room Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha is about 260 square feet – approximately the size of two parking spaces – and contains a 12 sq metre WC with a shower and a 12 sq metre terrace. “The ex-president might be authorized to have a television and even a cooler in his cell as long as they were donated by his relatives,” the report stated.

Political Reactions

Senator Lucas condemned the speculated idea to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a type of payback” on the part of the supreme court judge who oversaw Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his outcome in the {