Ghislaine Maxwell ‘is taken off suicide watch and wants to be moved out of solitary confinement at hell-hole Brooklyn jail’
- Ghislaine Maxwell is complaining about conditions at jail where she is locked up
- 58-year-old was recently taken off suicide watch, but is still being subjected to daily searches and constant surveillance which should be stopped, lawyer says
- She also wants out of solitary confinement and to be put in with other prisoners
- Comes after friend Jeffrey Epstein died in prison, in what was ruled a suicide
Ghislaine Maxwell is complaining about conditions inside the ‘hell-hole’ Brooklyn jail where she is being kept ahead of her sex crimes trial.
The 58-year-old British socialite is being subjected to multiple searches each day and is under constant watch of the guards, her lawyers said, despite recently being taken off suicide watch.
The searches and surveillance should be stopped, her lawyers said, while requesting that she be be taken out of solitary confinement and placed in with other prisoners.
Ghislaine Maxwell is complaining about being kept in solitary confinement and under constant surveillance at a ‘hell-hole’ Brooklyn jail (seen in a recent court sketch)
Maxwell wants to be moved into general population and allowed more computer time so she can prepare a defense to claims she helped friend Jeffrey Epstein traffick girls for sex (file)
Her legal team say she is only being subjected to the ‘onerous’ conditions because friend Jeffrey Epstein died while awaiting trial, in what was ruled a suicide.
They argue that she ‘has never been suicidal and was never diagnosed as exhibiting risk factors for suicide,’ but is still woken up every few hours during the night and forced to wear special clothing.
She has also been forced to undergo body scans, lawyer Chris Everdell wrote in a letter seen by the New York Post, and is observed even while calling her attorneys.
‘Ms. Maxwell is being treated worse than other similarly situated pretrial detainees, which significantly impacts her ability to prepare a defense,’ he said.
His letter asks that Maxwell ‘be released to the general population and be granted the privileges given to other pretrial detainees’.
Everdell also requested for her to be given more computer time in order to review the reams of documents relating to her case.
Further, his team are asking that she be given the names of three anonymous women who are accusing her of grooming an abusing them.
‘Maxwell cannot prepare for or receive a fair trial without this information,’ her lawyers argued.
Maxwell’s lawyers say she is being subjected to ‘onerous’ conditions at Brooklyn’s MDC (pictured) because Epstein died behind bars, and not because of any risk she poses
Jeffrey Epstein was initially charged with sex trafficking in Florida in 2006, before being hit with a 53-page FBI indictment the following year.
In 2008, he was offered a controversial plea deal that saw him sentenced to 18 months in prison for soliciting underage prostitutes.
He was then rearrested in July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking, when he was moved to a maximum security jail in Manhattan.
On August 10 he was found unconscious in his cell with injuries to his neck and later died in what was officially ruled a suicide.
Epstein had been on suicide watch but was taken off just days before his death, on the condition that he be placed with a cellmate and constantly monitored.
But the day before his body was found his cellmate was moved out and not replaced, and guards failed to carry out checks on him.
Maxwell, who is accused of acting as Epstein’s ‘madam’ by finding him young women to abuse and then ‘training’ them to comply with his desires, was arrested on July 2 at a mansion she owned in New Hampshire.
She was transferred to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre on July 6, and has been held in solitary confinement since then.