Ghislaine Maxwell is having a tough time at the Brooklyn Federal jail. Her hairline is fast receding and she has lost several pounds over the past few weeks, her lawyers claimed in new court filings on Monday. The details about her deteriorating health were revealed in response to claims from the Bureau of Prisons that she is subject to normal conditions, well-fed and healthy.
Maxwell is consciously being held in solitary confinement in the Metropolitan Detention Center in a bid to prevent her from taking any drastic step like committing suicide like her former boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, attorney Bobbi Sternheim wrote in the filing. Maxwell was arrested on July 3 and since is lodged in jail.
Maxwell Unwell
Maxwell, 58, has lost as much as 15 pounds over the past few months and looks quite frail. She has also lost a lot of hair, wrote her attorney on Monday. "While her weight may currently be fairly consistent, she had lost over 15 pounds, and she is sustaining hair loss," wrote attorney Bobbi Sternheim in the letter to US District Judge Alison Nathan, who is overseeing Maxwell's sex-trafficking case.
The new filing comes in response to claims made by the Bureau of Prisons that Maxwell has been taken well care of and given quality food and maintains a healthy weight of 134 pounds at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Sternheim also mention in the filing that her meal plan may now be in compliance with the prison rules and standard but it wasn't till six weeks ago, which resulted in the massive weight loss.
Besides, her attorney claimed that Maxwell has gone into depression since she has been kept in solitary confinement which deprived her access education and leisure options such as movies, letters and religious services. "It is obvious that Ms. Maxwell is bearing the brunt of BOP incompetence," Sternheim wrote.
Maxwell has been held since her July arrest on charges that she procured teenage girls for her one-time boyfriend Jeffery Epstein to abuse in the mid-1990s. The British socialite has pleaded not guilty and is preparing for a trial next July.
Maxwell's Many Complaints
Besides losing weight and hair, Maxwell has also complained through her lawyers that there is constant surveillance on her, with a flashlight shined on her cell every 15 minutes and frequent searches. Understandably, the prison authorities are extra cautious this time around given that Epstein hanged himself last year in a Manhattan federal jail while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of minors.
Maxwell's lawyers have also claimed that she went for stretches without food for over 20 hours since her arrest. According to Sternheim, when Maxwell requested for vegetarian food, she would only be served bread and butter. She was recently also on a 14-day quarantine after staff in the prison where she is held tested positive for coronavirus. The 1,300-bed jail is currently suffering from a major outbreak, with 55 inmates testing positive for Covid-19 last week.
The series of complaints comes as her attorneys re-appeal for her bail. Maxwell was earlier denied bail on $5 million bond. In a November 25 letter to the judge that was unsealed on Monday, Maxwell's lawyer Mark Cohen asked that the bail application be filed under seal to protect her friends and family who plan to co-sign the bond. The filing cites instances of several death threats against Maxwell posted on social media.
