Federal Bureau of Prisons defends Ghislaine Maxwell’s jail conditions
Maxwell is awaiting trial on charges she recruited girls and women to be sexually abused by her and Epstein then lied in a deposition about it
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The federal Bureau of Prisons defended Ghislaine Maxwell’s jail conditions on Monday, noting that she gets three meals a day and is in “good health” at a healthy weight of 134 pounds.
Attorneys for the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn filed a letter saying the British socialite is being treated like any other inmate — following repeated complaints from Maxwell’s defense team about what they have called the “onerous” terms of her confinement.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Maxwell’s lawyers have said that the 2019 suicide of her co-conspirator Jeffrey Epstein while awaiting federal sex trafficking charges at another BOP facility has led to the intrusive monitoring of her every move to ensure she doesn’t meet the same fate.
But staff attorneys at the MDC have insisted their management of the high-profile inmate has ensured her well-being without taking unduly restrictive measures.
“Since Ms. Maxwell’s arrival, she has been provided three meals a day in accordance with BOP policy and its National Menu,” wrote Sophia Papapetru, a staff attorney at the federal lockup, to Manhattan federal court Judge Alison Nathan.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Her medical records show that she currently weighs 134 pounds, which fluctuates plus or minus 2 pounds.”
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Maxwell, 58, has also complained that she can’t get a good night’s sleep with guards waking her every 15 minutes with a flashlight to ensure she’s still alive — a practice the BOP defended.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“MDC Brooklyn correctional staff utilize flashlights when viewing inmates’ cells overnight to ensure inmates are still breathing and not in distress,” the letter says.
During the day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Maxwell can enjoy the facility’s common areas and can access “recreational space, social calls, television, shower, legal telephone calls, email, computers, and discovery material,” according to the filing.
The accused child abuser spends considerable time chatting on the phone. She gets 500 minutes per month of social calls, which she has used, the jail lawyers wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Once she returns to her cell, she can snack on a range of items from the commissary and can sip water. Even the temperature in her cell is checked three times a day to ensure it is adequately heated, the letter says.
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While the BOP attorneys acknowledged that a number of inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, they wrote that “Maxwell remains in a good health and is not in contact with those individuals” or any staff who’ve interacted with them. Maxwell has tested negative for the virus.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The jail lawyers did not address Maxwell’s complaints about 24/7 video surveillance.
Maxwell is awaiting trial on charges she recruited girls and women to be sexually abused by her and Epstein then lied in a deposition about it.
Her lawyers have filed a new motion for her release on bail, which Nathan is expected to rule on later this month. She has been locked up since her arrest in July when the judge denied her bid for release on $5 million bond.