Inmates annoyed by the move of Ghislaine Maxwell to their campus style prison and say it’s caused them problems
The decision to move disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security female prison has been irritating her fellow inmates – who are angry at the move.
Reports from the US said the prisoners were even once placed on lockdown so her visitors could be properly accommodated. Maxwell, 63, was transferred to the Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas in August after three and a half years in a federal prison after her conviction for aiding Jeffrey Epstein in his abuse of under-age girls.
Victims of the late paedophile financier have also raised concerns about how Maxwell came to be transferred from a high-security jail in Florida to the campus-style facility this year.
According to The Wall Street Journal, inmates were confined to their dormitories after breakfast on one occasion in August as Maxwell held meetings in the camp’s chapel. Some prisoners claimed they had been told the lockdown had been necessary because of the importance of her visitors.
Maxwell has told fellow prisoners that she does not know why she was transferred there, though her lawyer has said it was for her safety. Before the transfer she had two meetings with the US deputy attorney general as scrutiny of the Epstein scandal increased. During the interviews, Maxwell said she had never seen President Trump doing anything inappropriate during his encounters with Epstein.
Trump has faced pressure over his relationship with Epstein in recent months after the details of a lewd letter sent by him for the financier’s 50th birthday back in 2003 were leaked.
Inmates at Maxwell’s new facility, which has been targeted by protesters, have also been irked at what they describe as her favourable treatment by the prison authorities.
She is not the only high-profile person among the camp’s 600 prisoners. Elizabeth Holmes, who defrauded investors in her blood-testing company, Theranos, is also an inmate.
The newspaper also claimed that prisoners have been warned not to threaten Maxwell, after claims that she had been heckled as a child abuser, or discuss her with the media.
Extra security measures, including the positioning of heavily armed guards at the prison’s entrance and exit, are said to have been introduced after Maxwell arrived.
