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Ghislaine Maxwell transferred to low-security prison in Florida

Ghislaine Maxwell attends a press conference on the Issue of Oceans in Sustainable Development Goals, at United Nations headquarters, June 25, 2013. United Nations Photo/Rick Bajornas via AP, File

Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved to a low-security prison in Florida to serve out her 20-year sentence for helping the late Jeffrey Epstein traffic young women and girls to be sexually abused.

The disgraced socialite was moved to Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee, according to the Bureau of Prisons. Maxwell, 60, will be eligible for release on July 17, 2037, when she is 75.

Maxwell maintains her innocence to this day and appealed her conviction and sentence earlier this month.

Since her arrest in July 2020, Maxwell has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in New York, where her lawyers say she was subject to “reprehensible” conditions.

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Maxwell’s lawyers claimed that she was deprived of water and fed maggot-infested food, and that guards prevented her from sleeping by consistently shining flashlights into her eyes, according to The Guardian. They requested that Maxwell be moved to FCI Danbury, a low-security prison in Connecticut that was the inspiration for Orange Is the New Black.

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Alison Nathan, the judge that presided over Maxwell’s trial, also recommended that the Epstein associate serve her sentence in Danbury — a jail that was described by experts as being “like Disneyland” compared with the Metropolitan Detention Centre.

The Bureau of Prisons, though, ultimately made the decision to transfer Maxwell to FCI Tallahassee following her sentencing.

FCI Tallahassee is a women-only prison that houses just under 800 inmates, according to Zoukis Consulting Group, a company that advises people entering prisons.

At the facility, Maxwell, the daughter of publishing baron Robert Maxwell, will wake up every day at 6 a.m., make her bed, dress in a khaki uniform and maintain a job assignment, ABC News reported.

FCI Tallahassee has a range of recreational activities available to inmates, including an artwork and craft program, talent shows, movies, yoga, pilates and frisbee. The prison also houses a track that has regular hours of operation, according to Zoukis Consulting Group.

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Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and conspiracy charges on Dec. 29, 2021. Nathan said when handing down her sentence that although “Epstein was central to this scheme,” Maxwell was not being punished “as a proxy” for him.

“Maxwell’s conduct was shockingly predatory. She was a calculating, sophisticated, and dangerous criminal who preyed on vulnerable young girls and groomed them for sexual abuse,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

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