[ad_1]
The US Federal Bureau of Prisons has rejected claims by Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorneys that she is subject to unduly restrictive conditions.
The office said the 58-year-old British socialite is being treated in the same way as other inmates at the Brooklyn jail where she is being held.
As Ms. Maxwell prepares another request for bail, attorneys for the office said in a letter published Monday that she “remains in good health” despite a Covid-19 outbreak at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Maxwell has been incarcerated since July, when she pleaded not guilty to helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls in the 1990s and to lying under oath about her role.
Lawyers for the prison office said that Ms. Maxwell is served three normal meals a day and maintains her weight at approximately 61 kg (134 pounds). They said he has access to recreation, computers and television, that he can work on his defense for much of the day, and he allots eight hours a month of social calls.
Making sure she’s still alive
Ms. Maxwell’s attorneys had complained of unequal treatment, saying she had been “excessively and invasively searched” and awakened every 15 minutes to make sure she was still alive.
In response, the office said inmates “are subject to searches, including body scans,” and Brooklyn jail officials check cells at night with flashlights “to make sure inmates are still breathing and not suffering.”
Maxwell’s lawyers are expected to submit a new bail request to US District Judge Alison Nathan on Tuesday. The judge had denied bail on July 14 and agreed with prosecutors that Ms. Maxwell posed a substantial flight risk.
Maxwell has been in custody since his July 2 arrest at a New Hampshire home where prosecutors said he had been hiding. She faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted at her trial scheduled for July 2021. – Reuters
[ad_2]