A woman allegedly plotted to kill in her sleep businesswoman Ghislaine Maxwell, sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking of minors by a New York court.
• Read also: Ghislaine Maxwell is appealing her 20-year prison sentence
• Read also: Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking of minors
Ghislaine Maxwell told the DailyMail her daily life in the various detention centers where she has been held for the past two years.
Accused of sex trafficking of minors, the 59-year-old woman is currently being held in a Florida prison and is expected to remain there for the remainder of her sentence. Between 1994 and 2004, Ghislaine Maxwell recruited young girls who were sexually exploited by wealthy American businessman Jeffrey Epstein.
Imprisoned 24 hours a day, she is not even allowed to go out to get some fresh air. She shares a 3m by 2.5m cell with three other inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida.
Her cell, with four bunks and a small closet for each occupant, is so small that the four cellmates cannot all stand up in it.
Deplorable conditions
The former businesswoman mentioned the harsh isolation, lack of food and clean water and deep loneliness that led her to file 300 separate complaints with the authorities.
A fellow prisoner even planned to kill her in her sleep, said Ghislaine Maxwell, adding that a bounty had been put on her head.
In addition to death threats against her, she claims to have suffered weeks of torment during which she was forced to wear nothing more than a blouse in freezing temperatures because authorities feared that she commits suicide.
Despite the particularly difficult prison conditions in Tallahassee, the 50-year-old feels safer there than elsewhere.
She also deplores the difficult access to telephones. If no phone is available during the one-hour window when you can leave your cell, then no calls are possible.
“It’s difficult to access the phone, since until just a few days ago there were only two working phones. Everyone tries to call their family,” she said.
Typical day
Wake up at 6 a.m., lunch served at 6:20 a.m., then “nothing happens until about 10:30 a.m., when you go to dinner,” she reported.
“And nothing happens until the count after that. You have to get up at 4 p.m. and they [les gardiens] matter to you. After that you get what is called the main evening meal and you have about 20 minutes to eat. The lights go out around 10 p.m., “said the inmate.
Employed by the small law library and the prison’s education centre, Ghislaine Maxwell says she wants to help people.
“I see this as an opportunity to use all my abilities to help people around me because some of them really don’t have much,” she says.
“There are a lot of them who don’t speak English or are uneducated, so I use my skills to help them,” she adds.