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He contested the law and the law triumphed.

Sixty days after getting a quarter-century plus sentence for attempting to “eradicate” Brazil’s democratic institutions, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro finally looks headed to prison.

Expected Incarceration

The convicted plotter – who's been living under residential detention in his estate while a set of court processes and petitions play out – is broadly anticipated to be jailed in the coming days, amid mounting speculation that he will be moved to a well-known maximum security penitentiary.

Past Statements on Prisoners

Over Bolsonaro’s four-decade political career, the right-wing former military man showed minimal compassion for the country's jailed individuals.

“For what reason must we provide these lowlifes a good life?” he once mused. “They ought to simply be messed, end of story. That's my view.”

At another time, Bolsonaro proclaimed: “If you don’t want to wind up behind bars, you simply need is to avoid rape, kidnap or rob.”

Incarceration Facility Discussion

However the prospect of Bolsonaro himself landing in the Papuda high-security prison in Brasília has shocked supporters, a group of four this week toured the prison in an obvious effort to dissuade the supreme court from sending him there.

Izalci Lucas, a senator from Bolsonaro’s political party who was among that group, said he expected the 70-year-old leader to be incarcerated in the following week and a half and worried his assigned prison could be Papuda.

The senator argued Bolsonaro’s acute intestinal issues – the outcome of a life-threatening knife attack during the 2018 presidential political campaign – signified it would be risky to keep the ex-leader there. “His [health] situation is very grave. He cannot to handle it if they take him to Papuda … It could be awful,” said the senator, who also worried about cramped cells and the condition of jail cuisine.

When inspecting Papuda, Lucas recalled witnessing cells containing four dozen inmates: “That’s virtually one meter squared per detainee.

“We talked to the convicts and they protest, of course, of the terrible cuisine,” added the senator.

Supporters React

He is not the lone figure speaking out prior to the one-time head of state's expected incarceration.

Authoring in a major publication, another ally, the ex- cabinet member Fábio Wajngarten, lamented the “severe” conclusion to Bolsonaro’s “spotless” public service and alleged Brazil was about to experience “the greatest wrong in its past”.

“This is an wrong that erodes the hearts of millions of Brazilians,” Wajngarten wrote.

Varied Public Opinion

That may be accurate given the substantial following Bolsonaro maintains on the Brazilian right. But his expected incarceration has also pleased the hearts of many others who feel he deserves to be imprisoned for conspiring to prevent his successor from becoming president – and also plotting to have him killed.

The lawmaker, a politician for the sitting leader's Workers’ party, commented: “Nobody wishes Bolsonaro to be sent in a dungeon. Not a soul wants Bolsonaro to be placed in isolation. No one desires Bolsonaro not to be fed or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We desire him to get dignified handling – but dignified handling while incarcerated. He must not persist being his self-appointed guard for his lifetime.”

The congressman noted how Bolsonaro allies, who have spent years applauding the harsh conditions of convicts, had unexpectedly woken up to their rights. “Only now has the extreme right – which has always claimed that civil liberties should not be for lawbreakers – decided to tour a penitentiary to learn what circumstances are really like,” he remarked.

“Bolsonaro is a criminal,” the congressman maintained, but that did not mean he earned “shameful, demeaning treatment”.

Potential Jail Conditions

Regardless of rumors that Bolsonaro could be sent to Papuda, which now houses about fourteen thousand inmates, his more likely location looks to be a adjacent jail for police officers and other “special” inmates called Papudinha (Small Papuda).

The accommodations are far more adequate than those in the larger jail, although nonetheless a far cry from the opulence Bolsonaro enjoyed while residing in the stunning presidential palace, around 12 miles away.

According to sources, the cell Bolsonaro could likely occupy in Papudinha measures about 260 square feet – approximately the dimensions of vehicle spaces – and contains a 12 square meter restroom with a water facility and a 130 square foot terrace. “He could be authorized to have a TV and also a cooler in his room as long as they were donated by his relatives,” sources suggested.

Ideological Reactions

He denounced the talked-about idea to send the ex-president to Papuda as “a form of payback” on the part of the judicial authority who presided over Bolsonaro’s legal case and will rule on his future in the {