Inmates have been warned to keep quiet about Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrival to the federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, where she was transferred after speaking to an official from President Donald Trump's Department of Justice.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who had been the president's criminal defense attorney before his re-election, met twice last month with the convicted sex trafficker as Trump's longstanding ties to her and the late Jeffrey Epstein came under the microscope. Maxwell's transfer to a minimum-security unit last week has triggered new political scrutiny, reported CNN.
“I’m surprised to hear my progressive friends criticizing more humane prisons and Ghislaine’s transfer to a safer facility, especially after she faced serious danger in Tallahassee,” tweeted Maxwell's attorney David O. Markus, who added that his client was moved because she needed "safer placement."
“The outrage machine wants to turn a safer placement into a scandal.”
Maxwell's arrival sent a jolt of tension across the facility, where women are serving sentences for largely non-violent white-collar crimes. Fellow inmates were recently warned against speaking about the infamous new resident, according to two sources who represent inmates at the prison camp.
“She’s not making any friends – radioactive,” said Sam Mangel, a prison consultant who works with clients at the prison camp. “Nobody’s going to rock the boat there. They want to serve the remainder of their sentences with whatever modicum of comfort Bryan provides."
A prisoner named Julie Howell said she was "disgusted" by Maxwell's transfer to Bryan in a statement provided to The Daily Telegraph by the inmate's husband. But after publication, prison officials pulled her out of a puppy-training class at the camp and transferred her to another federal detention center in Houston, according to her lawyer and the Bureau of Prisons.
“Nobody’s going to say anything about Ghislaine Maxwell now, are you kidding?” said Howell’s lawyer Patrick McLain.
Jill Ford, a recently released inmate, told CNN she would have been concerned about Maxwell's presence at Bryan during visitation because many of the women have children who frequently visit.
Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking minors after a 2021 trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison, and she's not due to be released for 12 years. It's highly unusual for sex offenders to be transferred to a federal prison camp, where women are able to move around in relative freedom and bunk together in dormitory-style rooms.
The camp offers a work release program that trains certified nursing assistants and places puppies for inmates to train as service dogs, but Maxwell would not likely be able to participate in either program due to her sex crime conviction.
“We do not allow anyone who has committed crimes against animals or minors, that’s because they’re vulnerable populations,” Paige Mazzoni, CEO of Canine Companions, which runs the puppy training program. “The goal is to give the puppies love and enough confidence to continue to learn tasks.”