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The US Federal Bureau of Prisons has rejected claims by Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers that she is subject to unduly restrictive conditions.
The bureau said the 58-year-old British socialite is being treated the same as other inmates at the Brooklyn jail in which she is being held.
As Ms Maxwell prepares another bail application, the bureau’s lawyers said in a letter released on Monday that she “remains in good health” despite a Covid-19 outbreak at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Ms Maxwell has been jailed since July, when she pleaded not guilty to helping late financier Jeffrey Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls in the 1990s and lying under oath about her role.
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Lawyers for the prison bureau said Ms Maxwell is served three normal meals a day and keeps her weight at about 61kg (134lbs). They said she has access to recreation, computers and television, can work on her defence for much of the day and makes her allotted eight hours a month of social calls.
Ensuring she is still alive
Ms Maxwell’s lawyers had complained of unequal treatment, saying she has been “excessively and invasively searched” and woken every 15 minutes to ensure she is still alive.
In response, the bureau said that inmates “are subject to searches, including body scanners” and that Brooklyn jail officials check cells overnight with flashlights “to ensure inmates are still breathing and not in distress”.
Ms Maxwell’s lawyers are expected by Tuesday to submit a new bail application to US district judge Alison Nathan. The judge had denied bail on July 14th, agreeing with prosecutors that Ms Maxwell posed a substantial flight risk.
Ms Maxwell has been in custody since her July 2nd arrest at a New Hampshire home where prosecutors said she had been hiding. She faces up to 35 years in prison if found guilty at her scheduled July 2021 trial. – Reuters