NEW YORK (AP) – Ghislaine Maxwell, the airplane socialite turned convicted sex traffickeris headed to Florida to serve a 20-year federal sentence for helping financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls — returning to the same state but a far cry from the glamorous lifestyle where she committed some of the crimes her..
Maxwell, 60, was transferred last week to FCI Tallahassee, a low-security federal prison in Florida’s capital, from the federal prison in Brooklyn, where she had spent the past two years under close observation in light of Epstein’s suicide. in prison in 2019, Federal Bureau. of Prisons said.
It was not clear whether Maxwell would be held in restrictive housing or under other special precautions, given her fame and long-standing concerns about her well-being behind bars.
Maxwell, who was sentenced last December in Manhattan and was sentenced in Junecomplained repeatedly about her treatment at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, her home since her arrest in July 2020.
Maxwell and her lawyers complained that prison officers turned on a light in her cell every 15 minutes, disrupting her sleep and subjecting her to hundreds of searches and pat-downs. She also alleged that a guard at the Brooklyn facility physically assaulted her and that she was punished for complaining about it.
A message seeking comment was left with Maxwell’s attorneys.
Maxwell, who once mingled with kings, presidents and billionaires as the daughter of a British publishing tycoon, was convicted of seducing teenage girls. for Epstein to abuse.
Her month-long trial featured sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teenagers in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.
Maxwell’s new home, FCI Tallahassee, is about 360 miles (580 kilometers) from Epstein’s since-demolished Palm Beach residence, where prosecutors say some of the abuse took place.
The prison, opened in 1938, has about 820 male and female inmates. According to an inmate handbook, people incarcerated at the facility have access to a wide range of classes and activities, including painting, leather, art and ceramics, musical instruments, and team sports such as softball, basketball and volleyball.
The prison also offers yoga, Pilates, movies and an inmate talent show, according to prison consulting firm Zoukis Consulting Group.
Maxwell is joining a short list of notable people who have served time at FCI Tallahassee, including Maria Butina, the Russian secret agent who tried to infiltrate conservative American political groups, and Colleen LaRose, known as “Jihad Jane” for providing material support to terrorists. Butina was released in 2019 and deported to Russia. LaRose was released in 2018.
As do many federal prisons, as The Associated Press has reportedFCI Tallahassee has had its share of employees who have committed crimes in recent years — including sexually abusing inmates.
In March, former FCI Tallahassee recreation specialist Jimmy Lee Highsmith was sentenced to four years in prison for sexually abusing an inmate between March 2014 and September 2018.
In August 2021, former FCI Tallahassee food service supervisor Phillip Golightly was sentenced to two years in prison for sexually abusing an inmate in November 2019.
In 2006, a corrections officer and a federal agent were killed in a gunfight on prison grounds. The officer opened fire as agents tried to arrest him and several other officers on charges of providing contraband to female inmates in exchange for sex, officials said.
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