EXCLUSIVE: Ghislaine Maxwell is moved to low-security federal prison in Florida – where she can take part in an inmate talent show, continue teaching fellow inmates yoga or learn a trade like baking, plumbing or cosmetology
- Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved to FCI Tallahassee, a low-security prison in Florida, where she will serve her 20-year sentence
- It is against the recommendation of Judge Alison Nathan, who asked the Bureau of Prisons to send her to FCI Danbury in Connecticut
- Maxwell was convicted of helping billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein abuse underage girls after a trial in December
- The new prison will be just about a five-hour drive from where she lured the young girls to be abused by Epstein
Ghislaine Maxwell has been sent to a Florida prison where she will serve her 20-year sentence for helping billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein abuse underage girls, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
The disgraced socialite has been moved to FCI Tallahassee, a low-security prison in the Sunshine State, near where she committed her crimes.
The Bureau of Prisons website indicates Maxwell will be eligible for release on July 17 2037.
The choice of prison by the BOP is against the recommendation of Judge Alison Nathan, who oversaw Maxwell’s trial for recruiting and trafficking underage girls for the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Judge Nathan asked the BOP – following a request from Maxwell’s lawyers – to send her to FCI Danbury in Connecticut.
However the BOP has ultimate authority and decided against sending Maxwell there.
Despite this Maxwell, 60, will likely welcome the news as she has complained bitterly about her treatment at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where she has been held since her arrest in July 2020.
Her lawyers have accused prison authorities of breaching her rights by shining a torch in her cell every 15 minutes and subjected her to invasive searches while filming her at all hours.
Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured on sex pest Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet) was sentenced last month to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking young girls for him. She is now appealing that decision
Epstein and Maxwell are pictured in an undated photo. He killed himself in jail in August 2019, while Maxwell was jailed for 18 years for child sex trafficking in June
Maxwell was convicted after a trial in December in which her victims testified that she lured them to Epstein when they were as young as 14 years old.
During the sentencing Maxwell said she wanted to ‘acknowledge’ the pain of her victims but stopped short of an apology.
Her lawyers have already filed a notice saying they will appeal both the conviction and the sentence.
That Maxwell serves her sentence in Florida has a certain irony as it was there that her criminal conduct occurred.
Oxford-educated Maxwell was found guilty on five of six counts, the most serious for sex trafficking minors.
The charges stemmed from crimes committed against four women between 1994 and 2004 mostly at Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach, a five hour drive from her new prison.
FCI Tallahassee, which opened in 1938, has a population of 755 inmates and only houses women. The FCI stands for Federal Correctional Institute.
According to the prison handbook, Maxwell will be woken up at 6am every day and be issued an inmate identification card that she must wear at all times.
Each period of the day is announced over the tannoy and includes exercise sessions and work periods.
Staff may search inmates’ cells at any time for contraband or stolen property and each prison shares a cell with one other person.
The prison handbook says that the only approved uniform is: khaki pants, khaki shirt, underwear, bra, socks, and authorized shoes.
A khaki dress is also permitted.
Maxwell will be allowed to wear a plain wedding band, however her marriage to former tech entrepreneur Scott Borgerson is over and they are thought to be in the process of divorcing.
Maxwell has now been transferred to FCI Tallahassee (pictured) where she will serve out her 20-year sentence. It is only a few hours from Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, where she helped him sexually abuse young girls
She will be required to wear khaki clothes at FCI Tallahassee, and she will be woken up at 6am every day, according to the prison handbook
Upon arrival, Maxwell was issued basic items like deodorant, a bar of sap, socks, bottle of shampoo, toothpaste and a towel.
While at the MDC Maxwell had already impressed other inmates by teaching them yoga and English – she will likely continue to do so in her new prison.
According to one prison consultant, Zoukis Consulting Group, yoga is available to inmates at FCI Tallahassee as well as pilates, weights, softball, flag football and frisbee – English is also taught for those who want to learn.
Maxwell will be able to keep herself entertained by taking part in the prison talent show or watching movies.
There is also a track for running – Maxwell is known to be a keen jogger.
Maxwell will be able to continue learning Russian – her lawyers have said she started doing so in the MDC to keep herself entertained – in the recreational library.
Among the apprenticeships that Maxwell can do are: electrician, baker, horticulturist and plumber, though it is not clear which local companies she would potentially work for.
Cosmetology is also offered as a trade for inmates to learn, a pursuit which may include massage. Maxwell’s convictions were based on underage girls being brought to Epstein for sexualized massages.
FCI Tallahassee has suffered controversy in the past and in 2007 six guards were convicted for a sex-for-contraband scandal.
The guards would exchange items like gum, perfume, makeup and bras for sex with women inside.
In 2021 the BOP settled a lawsuit in which 15 women alleged sexual abuse by corrections officers at the facility.
Notable inmates at FCI Tallahassee include the terrorist Colleen LaRose and Earth Liberation Front member Chelsea Gerlach.
Judge Alison Nathan handed down the 240-month sentence followed by five years supervised release on June 28. She had suggested she serve out her sentence in Danbury, Connecticut
The facility in Danbury was expected to be where Maxwell would serve her sentence after the request from her lawyers during sentencing.
During sentencing Maxwell’s lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said: ‘We request that Ms. Maxwell be designated, based on a recommendation by the Court, to the BOP facility, the women’s facility in Danbury, and also a recommendation that she be enrolled in the FIT program, which is the Female Integrated Treatment program, to address past familial and other trauma’.
Judge Nathan said: ‘I recommend to the Bureau of Prisons consideration of placement in Danbury and consideration of eligibility for enrollment in the FIT program’.
The FIT program would have allowed Maxwell to be part of a ‘therapeutic community’ that will help her understand how her own abusive father shaped her life.
Workshops would have included ‘Trauma in Life’ and ‘Seeking Safety’ so she could process the impact of being abused by her father, the late British press baron Robert Maxwell.
In court, her lawyers tried to argue that Robert’s abusive behavior around his children made her ‘vulnerable’ when she met Epstein around the time of her father’s mysterious death in 1991.
And prior to her sentencing last month, Maxwell made a public statement expressing remorse for her actions.
‘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’ and claimed she, herself, was a victim of his.
She had also written in a memo prior to the sentencing that a troubled childhood made her vulnerable to commit such heinous acts after her father mysteriously died in 1991.
But she appeared to have have replaced one controlling, manipulative father with a nearly identical man – Epstein – who she dated before becoming the boss of his sex trafficking organization.
She and Epstein were together for several years before she became in charge of his sex trafficking operation
An infamous photo of Virginia Roberts, Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell was taken at Maxwell’s home in London’s Belgravia
Before Maxwell spoke in court last month, she was forced to confront her sex trafficking victims as they gave dramatic testimony.
Annie Farmer, Sarah Ransome, Elizabeth Stein and one woman known only as Kate read their heartbreaking victim impact statements where they pleaded for the judge to impose the longest possible sentence and demanded Maxwell spend the rest of her life in prison.
‘I was nothing more than a sex toy with a heartbeat and soul used to entertain Epstein, Maxwell and others,’ Ransome said, sharing photos of herself in a hospital bed after she tried to kill herself when the trauma of the sexual abuse became unbearable.
Ransome said in her victim statement, ‘On one visit to the island, the sexual demands, degradation and humiliation ensued me to try to escape by jumping off a cliff into shark-infested waters. I was caught by Maxwell and company moments before jumping.
‘At the time, that extremely risky escape seemed more appealing than being raped one more time,’ she said.
‘Maxwell is today the same woman I met almost 20 years ago – incapable of compassion or common human decency,’ Ransome added. ‘Sentencing her to the rest of her life in prison will not change her, but it will give survivors a slight sense of justice.’
Farmer, meanwhile, fought back tears as she asked the judge to take into account the ‘ongoing suffering of the many women she abused and exploited.
‘Judge Nathan, I hope when you consider the appropriate prison sentence for the role Maxwell played in this sex-trafficking operation, you take into account the ongoing suffering of the many women she abused and exploited as we will continue to live with the memories of the ways she harmed us,’ Farmer said.
‘I hope you weigh the systemic effects of the crimes she perpetrated – the ways that our family members, romantic partners and friends have been hurt through our suffering.
‘I ask you to bear in mind how Maxwell’s unwillingness to acknowledge her crimes, her lack of remorse, and her repeated lies about her victims created the need for many of us to engage in a long fight for justice that has felt like a black hole sucking in our precious time, energy, and well-being for much too long now.
‘These things cannot be replaced.’
Fellow victims listen tearfully as Sarah Ransome reads a victim impact statement ahead of Maxwell’s sentencing
After the sentencing Farmer slammed Maxwell’s ‘very hollow’ apology.
‘It felt very powerful to finally have a chance to speak and have my voice on the record and say how her crimes impacted people and myself,’ Farmer said.
‘Her statement felt like a very hollow apology to me. she did not take responsibility for her crimes that she committed, and it felt like once more than she was trying to do something that benefitted her and not at all about the harm that she caused.’
Stein revealed she had to have an abortion after getting raped ‘countless times,’ and Kate said Maxwell’s ‘lack of remorse and her blatant refusal to take responsibility is her final insult. She is not sorry and she will do it again.’
Kate said that women ‘must take a stand of zero tolerance to those who use their power to groom and traffic the vulnerable.’
‘Every single child must have their innocence defended,’ Kate says. ‘No person should be shielded from the consequences of their actions.’
‘Maxwell’s lack of remorse and her blatant refusal to take responsibility is her final insult. She is not sorry and she will do it again.
‘Today is not a happy day. I take no pleasure in being part of a world where this is necessary. I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with these brave women and to do what is necessary to stop Ghislaine.’
Fellow victim Virginia Roberts was not in court, but her lawyer Sigrid McCawley read her statement.
‘Ghislaine, 22 years ago, in the summer of 2000, you spotted me at the Mar-a-Lago Hotel in Florida, and you made a choice,’ McCawley reads from Giuffre’s statement.
‘You chose to follow me and procure me for Jeffrey Epstein. Just hours later, you and he abused me together for the first time. Together, you damaged me physically, mentally, sexually and emotionally. Together, you did unthinkable things that still have a corrosive impact on me to this day.’
‘When you did that, Ghislaine, you changed the course of our lives forever,’ she wrote.
Sarah Ransome, a former model from South Africa, shared photos of herself in a hospital bed after she tried to kill herself – one from 2008 and another in 2018 when Epstein was under investigation
During the trial, prosecutors called 24 witnesses to give jurors a picture of life inside Epstein’s homes – a subject of public fascination and speculation ever since his 2006 arrest in Florida in a child sex case.
A housekeeper testified he was expected to be ‘blind, deaf and dumb’ about the private lives of Epstein, a financier who cultivated friendships with influential politicians and business tycoons.
Pilots took the witness stand and dropped the names of luminaries – Britain’s Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump – who flew on Epstein’s private jets.
Jurors also saw physical evidence like a folding massage table once used by Epstein and a ‘black book’ that listed contact information for some of the victims under the heading ‘massages’.
There were bank records showing he had transferred $30.7 million to Maxwell.
Additionally, prosecutors produced a 58-page household manual covering every single aspect of running the house in Palm Beach that they indicated Maxwell had written. There were dozens of checklists for each area of the house, instructions on when to replace the toothpaste and what brands of creams to buy.
One instruction to all household staff that was seized on by the prosecution read: ‘You see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing’.
But the core of the prosecution was the testimony of four women who said they were victimized by Maxwell and Epstein at young ages.
Three testified using first names or pseudonyms to protect their privacy: Jane, a television actress; Kate, a former model from Great Britain; and Carolyn, now a mom recovering from drug addiction.
The fourth was Farmer, who chose to use her real name after being vocal about her allegations in recent years.
The most gut wrenching, though, was Carolyn who testified that she was one of several underprivileged teens who lived near Epstein’s Florida home in the early 2000s and took up an offer to give massages in exchange for $100 bills.
Maxwell made all the arrangements, Carolyn told the jury, even though she knew the girl was only 14 at the time.
Jane said in 1994, when she was only 14, she was instructed to follow Epstein into a pool house at the Palm Beach estate, where he masturbated on her.
Jane, meanwhile, told the jury: ‘I was frozen in fear’, adding that the assault was the first time she had ever seen a penis. She also directly accused Maxwell of participating in her abuse.
Maxwell’s lawyer asked Jane why it had taken so long to come forward.
She responded: ‘I was scared. I was embarrassed, ashamed. I didn’t want anybody to know any of this about me’.
Witness ‘Carolyn’ testified that she was one of several underprivileged teens who lived near Epstein’s Florida home in the early 2000s and took up an offer to give massages in exchange for $100 bills
Kate also said she was recruited by Maxwell in London in 1994 when she was 17 and described in vivid detail how she invited her round for tea and then asked her back to give Epstein a massage.
In chilling testimony Kate described how Maxwell closed the door behind her as a naked Epstein lay on a massage table in front of her. After one such encounter Maxwell told her: ‘Did you have fun? Was it good?’
Farmer described how she was lured to Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico at the age of 16 with the promise there would be dozens of other bright students that he wanted to help.
Instead it was just her and Maxwell proceeded to massage her breasts before Epstein got into bed with her.
Summing up her experience, Farmer said: ‘I think this was all a pattern of them working on confusing my boundaries and malign me question myself about what was right and what was not right with the ultimate goal of sexually abusing me’.
Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts.
In court Maxwell often hugged her lawyers appeared in good health despite claims from her lawyers she had been losing weight and losing hair due to the grim conditions in prison pre-trial.
She declined to testify, telling the court: ‘You honor, the government has not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt so there is no reason to testify’.
The true number of Epstein’s victims may never be known but the fund set up to pay compensation to them paid out $121million to 150 women around the world.
Most of the victim impact statements were released ahead of sentencing and they were blistering in their condemnation of Maxwell.
They included Virginia Roberts, who earlier this year settled a lawsuit with Prince Andrew for a reported $12m over claims that she was forced to have sex with him three times when she was 17.
According to Roberts, Maxwell recruited her when she was 16 at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
In her victim impact statement reads that Maxwell and Epstein did ‘unthinkable things’ to her.
The statement says: ‘Without question, Jeffrey Epstein was a terrible pedophile.
‘But I never would have met Jeffrey Epstein if not for you. For me, and for so many others, you opened the door to hell. And then, Ghislaine, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, you used your femininity to betray us, and you led us all through it.
‘Ghislaine, you deserve to spend the rest of your life in a jail cell. You deserve to be trapped in a cage forever, just like you trapped your victims.’
Farmer’s victim impact statement reads: ‘I remember sitting at my desk in a Houston hospital physically shaking after seeing the photo of Maxwell with Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew because it became clear to me how their scheme had continued’.
Sarah Ransome, a former model from South Africa who grew up in Scotland, said that Maxwell and Epstein turned her into ‘nothing more than a sex toy with a heartbeat’.
While trying to escape from Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean she tried to jump off a cliff but was found by Maxwell before she could.
Ransome wrote: ‘Maxwell was his right hand woman. She was the Five Star General of several recruiters and many others who provided the means and cover for Epstein’s predation.
‘Epstein and Maxwell were masters at finding young, vulnerable girls and young women to exploit. Like Hotel California, you could blindly check into the Epstein-Maxwell dungeon of sexual hell but you could never leave.
‘Jeffrey and Ghislaine made sure of that’.
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