Ghislaine Maxwell’s 20-year sentence could be served at the Connecticut federal prison that inspired ‘Orange Is the New Black’ and housed ‘Real Housewives’ star Teresa Giudice, a far cry from the infamous Metropolitan Detention Center where she’s been held since her arrest.
Maxwell should be sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, a low-security facility about 55 miles from New York City, according to Judge Alison Nathan.
Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for assisting sex offender and globetrotting financier Jeffrey Epstein in sexually abusing teenage girls in a ‘horrific scheme’ that caused ‘incalculable’ harm to victims.
Previous inmates include singer Lauryn Hill, reality TV star Teresa Giudice, and Orange is the New Black author Piper Kerman. Kerman is said to have based Litchfield Prison in Orange Is the New Black on Danbury.
Because there is no parole in federal prison, Maxwell is likely to serve the entirety of his 20-year sentence, but he could be released a few years early for good behavior.
After nearly two years at the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, prison experts say a stay at Danbury will feel like she’s in ‘Disneyland.’
The facility provides a number of enticing programs for inmates, including a “wide variety of hobby craft and music,” as well as circuit training, aerobics, and over 50 fitness classes.
Aerial photos of the prison show it also has a running track, a baseball field, and a well-kept lawn with trees and pathways.
Maxwell might not be able to use any of the amenities depending on the level of security she requires.
Between 1994 and 2004, the British socialite was convicted on five counts, including sex trafficking a minor, for recruiting and grooming four girls to have sexual encounters with Epstein, then her boyfriend.
Talking at her condemning hearing in Manhattan government court prior to learning the sentence, Maxwell called Epstein a ‘manipulative, cunning and controlling man’ who tricked everybody in his circle.
She said she was ‘sorry’ for the aggravation that his casualties experienced. ‘It is the best regret of my life that I ever met Jeffrey Epstein,’ Maxwell said.
Maxwell showed up in a blue jail uniform with shackles around her lower legs, tended to the court and said she was ‘fooled’ by Epstein.
‘I realize I have been convicted of assisting Jeffrey Epstein to commit these crimes,’ she said. ‘My association with Epstein will permanently stain me. It is the biggest regret of my life that I ever met him.’
She added that Epstein ‘fooled all of those in his orbit.’
Prosecutors had asked Judge Nathan to impose a sentence of at least 30 years because of Maxwell’s ‘utter lack of remorse,’ while Maxwell claimed she should serve just four years as she is not a danger to the public.
After the sentencing on Tuesday, Maxwell’s attorney Bobbi Sternheim said outside the courthouse, ‘Our client Ghislaine Maxwell has been vilified, pilloried and left little room for her to be treated fairly. Because even before she stropped forward into this courthouse, she was being tried and convicted in the court of public opinion.
‘Ghislaine will appeal this case and we’re confident she will prevail on appeal.’
Maxwell, who has been at the infamous Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since July 2020, has filed more than 100 complaints over jail conditions that she has called a ‘living hell’ where she was ‘assaulted and abused.’
She has complained of ‘humiliating’ body-cavity and strip searches, and invasive shower surveillance.
Maxwell – the jet-setting daughter of a wealthy British newspaper tycoon; a glamorous society darling who mingled with former presidents, billionaires and royals – complained that her treatment in the MDC amounted to torture.
Her family wanted to take the case to the United Nations, claiming that she was subjected to inhumane treatment – fed rotten food, kept in excessively hot and cold conditions, and living in a cell that flooded with raw sewage.
Justin Paperny, a federal prison consultant, said that wherever she ends up next, it will mark the beginning of a significantly improved phase in her incarceration.
Another prison expert previously told The Times that her new situation would be ‘like Disneyland’ by comparison. Paperny said the MDC had been infamous long before Maxwell set foot there.
In the winter of 2019, the power and heating failed, leading to outrage among relatives of 1,636 male and female inmates, and among activists.
A scathing report into conditions inside the jail commissioned in the aftermath was suppressed by the Bureau of Prisons until July this year, and the jail was described as violent, filthy, overcrowded and decrepit.
Paperny said the difference between the MDC and her post-sentencing prison will be stark.
‘Once she reaches prison she’ll feel like she’s won the lottery,’ he said.
‘She will be able to walk to the library, able to walk to the exercise track, able to make phone calls.’
Maxwell will not be able to follow in the footsteps of Martha Stewart and Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman and choose a’minimum security camp,’ according to Paperny.
Stewart was sentenced to five months in federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia, for lying about the sale of stock.
Last year, Huffman spent 11 days in jail in Dublin, California, after being convicted of fraudulently enrolling her daughters in prestigious colleges.
Paperny claimed that their prisons were dubbed “Club Feds” because of their laid-back attitude. ‘Maxwell won’t be eligible for the County Club prison type place as hers was a sex crime, so she’ll be fenced in.’
After Epstein committed suicide while awaiting trial in 2019, the focus shifted to Maxwell, who was arrested a year later and found guilty in December after a sensational trial.
She has stated that she will appeal her conviction and that she is being used as a “scapegoat” for Epstein.
During Maxwell’s weeks-long trial, four women testified against her: a victim known as ‘Jane,’ Annie Farmer, Kate, and another woman named Carolyn.
Over the course of three weeks, the jury heard how Maxwell’served up’ underage girls for Epstein and relished her role as ‘Lady of the House’ at his Palm Beach, Florida mansion.
Maxwell was Epstein’s ‘right hand’ between 1994 and 2004, and he paid $200 for sexualized massages or even participated in the abuse.
According to the jury, the victims, some of whom were as young as 14, were offered a similar sum of money if they brought friends to Epstein.
During the trial, prosecutors called 24 witnesses to paint a picture of life inside Epstein’s homes, which have been the subject of public fascination and speculation since his arrest in Florida in 2006 in a child sex case.
A housekeeper testified that he was expected to be ‘blind, deaf, and dumb’ about Epstein’s private life, which included friendships with influential politicians and business tycoons.
Pilots testified, naming celebrities who flew on Epstein’s private jets, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump.
Jurors saw physical evidence such as Epstein’s folding massage table and a ‘black book’ that listed contact information for some of the victims under the heading ‘massages.’
According to bank records, he transferred $30.7 million to Maxwell.