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He battled the legal system and the legal system won.

Sixty days after receiving a 27-year sentence for attempting to “destroy” Brazil’s democracy, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally appears jail-bound.

Anticipated Jailing

The convicted instigator – who's been under residential detention in his mansion while a number of court processes and challenges proceed – is widely expected to be jailed in the next few days, amid growing speculation that he will be transferred to a notorious top-security penitentiary.

Previous Statements on Inmates

Throughout Bolsonaro’s four-decade public life, the conservative ex- military man displayed little sympathy for Brazil’s inmates.

“For what reason must we provide those scoundrels a good life?” he previously wondered. “They should just get fucked, end of story. That’s what I reckon.”

In another instance, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to wind up in prison, all you have to do is to avoid sexual assault, abduction or rob.”

Jail Location Debate

However the idea of Bolsonaro himself ending up in the Papuda maximum security prison in Brasília has appalled supporters, a group of four this week toured the facility in an seeming bid to discourage the supreme court from transferring him there.

Senator Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was one of the visitors, claimed he predicted the septuagenarian leader to be jailed in the coming fortnight and was concerned his location could be Papuda.

Lucas claimed Bolsonaro’s acute gut issues – the result of a near-fatal stabbing during the last presidential campaign – meant it would be hazardous to keep the former president there. “His health is extremely serious. He will not be able to handle it if they move him to Papuda … It will be dreadful,” he commented, who also worried about cramped cells and the quality of jail cuisine.

During his tour Papuda, Lucas remembered seeing cells accommodating 40 inmates: “That is virtually one square metre per detainee.

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

Supporters Speak Out

The senator isn't the sole person speaking out prior to the ex-leader's predicted incarceration.

Writing in a leading daily, one more backer, the ex- communications minister Fábio Wajngarten, deplored the “brutal” end to Bolsonaro’s “flawless” public service and asserted Brazil was about to witness “the biggest unfairness in its record”.

“It represents an unfairness that eats away the spirits of countless of Brazilians,” he stated.

Divided Public Reaction

That may be true due to the substantial backing Bolsonaro maintains on the right-wing. Yet his anticipated incarceration has also warmed the hearts of numerous individuals who feel he deserves to be jailed for conspiring to block his successor from taking power – and additionally conspiring to have him killed.

Congressman Otoni, a politician for the sitting leader's allied group, said: “Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be placed in a dark cell. No one wants Bolsonaro to be sent in solitary confinement. Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to lack food or for him to have to lie on concrete. We want him to receive proper treatment – but proper care while incarcerated. He can’t persist being his own prison warden for his entire life.”

He observed how Bolsonaro supporters, who have for a long time celebrating the tough treatment of convicts, had suddenly become aware to their privileges. “Just now has the extreme right – which has consistently argued that civil liberties are not for offenders – opted to tour a penitentiary to discover what conditions are truly like,” he remarked.

“The former president is a criminal,” he affirmed, but that did not mean he earned “humiliating, demeaning conduct”.

Potential Jail Conditions

Regardless of rumors that Bolsonaro could be transferred to Papuda, which now holds about fourteen thousand detainees, his expected destination appears to be a nearby penitentiary for law enforcement and other “special” inmates known as Papudinha (Little Papuda).

Its cells are much more pleasant than those in the larger jail, although nevertheless a world away from the opulence Bolsonaro experienced while occupying the spectacular leader's home, around 20 kilometers away.

According to information, the accommodation Bolsonaro could anticipate occupy in Papudinha is about 24 square meters – about the area of a couple of car spots – and includes a 12 sq metre restroom with a water facility and a 12 square meter balcony. “Bolsonaro would be permitted to have a set and even a cooler in his cell as long as they were supplied by his family,” the report indicated.

Partisan Comments

He criticized the speculated proposal to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a type of revenge” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will decide his future in the {