Sounds about right. He's obviously getting preferential treatment from Day 1 due to his former position of power -i .e., being a former politician. Very unfair, but typical.
I know next-to-nothing about what life in prison is really like (I'm not counting TV shows/movies), but my understanding is that someone in a high-profile case like this is probably not in gen pop for long. I.e., it seems like they're typically moved somewhere "safe" so they won't be as much at risk for being assaulted/killed. To me, they should suffer along with all of the other violent criminals in there - but, that's obviously not the case.
Hopefully the family of JG will fight to keep this perp. in prison.