Ghislane Maxwell Sent to Low-Security Florida Prison

After years of protesting conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, Ghislaine Maxwell has been sent to a low-security federal prison in Florida. The British former socialite, who was sentenced last month to 20 years in prison for procuring underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, arrived at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee on Friday, NBC reports. The Bureau of Prisons lists the 60-year-old's release date as July 17, 2037. Maxwell had been held at the MDC since her July 2020 arrest. In December of last year, she was found guilty on five charges including sex trafficking of minors.

Her lawyers said that she faced "reprehensible" conditions at the Brooklyn facility and that guards flashed a light into her cell every 15 minutes even though she wasn't on suicide watch. In Tallahassee, she will be out of solitary confinement and allowed to use facilities like the running track and to take part in activities like yoga classes and movie nights, reports the New York Post. The Guardian reports that Maxwell's lawyers requested that she serve her sentence at FCI Danbury in Connecticut, the prison that inspired Orange Is the New Black. The move was recommended by the trial judge but the final decision was made by the Bureau of Prisons. (Relatives say Maxwell will apply for a transfer to a British prison.)