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re: EPSTEIN: Victims Sue Major Banks & Prince Andrew: The Musical
Ghislaine Maxwell Spotted Jogging in Sunshine Behind Jails' Barbed Wire
Dressed in a standard-issue grey T-shirt, matching sweat shorts and trainers, convicted teen sex trafficker
The Guardian UK 28 OCT 2022
Ghislaine Maxwell pounds out the miles in Tallahassee, Florida, US
Running in the Florida sun under which she once enticed and groomed minor girls for abuse, Ghislaine Maxwell jogs along her prison's track.
Ghislaine Maxwell's early morning runs are part of the monotonous and controlled regime she lives now under
Dressed in a standard-issue grey T-shirt, matching sweat shorts and trainers, the convicted teen sex trafficker pounds out the miles, locked up and locked alone in her thoughts.
Only the presence of uniformed warders and roll upon roll of razor-sharp barbered wire provides a reminder that the women dressed in similar attire are actual prisoners.
Prince Andrew's pal Maxwell - pictured outside for the first time in almost a decade - was captured behind Federal Correction Institute Tallahassee's fences, where she is set to spend the next 20 years of her life.
Her early morning runs are part of the monotonous and controlled regime she lives now under.
The four-lane prison track is a world away from New York's Fifth Avenue sidewalks, where she once shopped, partied and dined with her aristocratic friends.
The convicted teen sex trafficker pounds out the miles, locked up and locked alone in her thoughts
Despite her age, the 60-year-old is known among inmates to be a fitness fanatic, sometimes beating other, much younger women in a race.
"Ghislaine is incredibly fit," said a prison source.
"She runs almost every day, and when not jogging on the track, she will walk with one of her friends.
"For her age, she is incredibly active and does a 40 minutes session completing lap after lap without stopping before she needs to be back inside.
The disgraced daughter of crooked media tycoon Robert Maxwell was captured over several days, exercising inside the prison fences
"She is happy to be allowed out in the open once again, where she has at least some semblance of freedom.
"When not working in the law library, she stays outside in the sun for hours.
"She is very, very sociable."
As the Mirror's exclusive pictures and videos show, Maxwell maintains her fitness with a daily routine.
We watched as she pounded out of the 400m asphalt track inside the low-security prison and chatted animatedly with a friend while laughing hysterically.
The disgraced British socialite regularly completes eight laps while walking the course with her much younger pal on other days.
FCI Tallahassee is only a few hours from the Palm Beach mansion of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, where she enticed and groomed minor girls to be abused at his hands.
Maxwell was sentenced in June after being found guilty of recruiting his victims and trafficking underage girls for him to sexual abuse.
The billionaire Wall Street financier and convicted sex offender killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
Epstein had been awaiting his own sex trafficking trial.
Following her sentencing in June and after more than 500 days of being confined inside New York's tough Metropolitan Detention Centre (MDC), Maxwell, by her own admission, is enjoying her new home.
"I saw the sunlight for the first time, and I saw grass for the first time. So that was lovely," she said shortly after her arrival.
"And the food is actually better here by a large margin."
Maxwell is in FCI Tallahassee as her offences are too severe for her to be placed in an open prison – the usual destination for white-collar criminals. But her prison is hardly the Gulag.
It has a running track, a softball pitch, a basketball court, and manicured gardens.
It is where, according to America's Bureau of Prisons, inmate 02879-509 as Maxwell is known in the system, will be held until May 17, 2037.
It is a far cry from the MDC, in which Maxwell complained more than 100 times about her treatment.
At one point, her family even petitioned the United Nations, highlighting conditions, including her being deprived of sleep by guards at the jail.
Her prison has a running track, a softball pitch, a basketball court, and manicured gardens
"She is awakened constantly at night and has been subjected, for the 500+ days of her detention, to a 'suicide watch' – completely inappropriate in the case of a non-suicidal person – involving a flashlight shone every 15 minutes on her face to check that she is breathing, literally preventing her from sleeping," the petition stated.
Maxwell was also repeatedly searched throughout the day and claimed she was inappropriately sexually touched by guards on numerous occasions during the searches.
At one point, her lawyers claimed another inmate placed a $1 million bounty on her head.
But now firmly settled into Tallahassee, Maxwell has spoken about how much better her treatment has been - a move that earned her night in Special Housing Unit (SHU) as punishment.
"Everybody here so far has been extremely professional, and I have not experienced any of the gross violations of my rights that I experienced at MDC," she said in a recent interview.
"I don't feel unsafe. And I am perfectly able to live and work here."
However, the Mirror reveals that Maxwell was taken out of the general population last week and put in the SHU.
It came after she was reprimanded for her involvement with the press while inside.
A typical day for Maxwell starts before sunlight.
Before heading to her job in the prison's law library where she works Monday to Thursday, she is served her breakfast between 5.30 and 6.30am.
She and inmates from her "B South unit" dormitory are called to the prison canteen to pick up their food served on a throwaway styrofoam tray.
Typically, it will consist of a muffin, cereal, oatmeal, fruit, and milk.
By 7.30am, she has to have her bed made and be "inspection ready" dressed in her work uniform - a button-up shirt and matching khaki trousers.
Outside such hours and on the weekend, Maxwell is allowed to wear her own clothes, known as "grades".
The 60-year-old is known among inmates to be a fitness fanatic
Once two officers complete a head count of the dorm, it is off to work for the disgraced socialite before returning to her dormitory.
Maxwell has her lunch served between 11am and 11.30am and dinner between 4.30pm and 5pm.
On the weekend, she is served roast beef, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables for her evening meal.
Once finished, she returns to her dorm, where she chats for hours with her new pal, Narcy Novack.
As the Mirror revealed, the 65-year-old is serving life after masterminding the brutal death of her millionaire hotel-heir husband, Ben Novack Jr and his mother.
The former stripper had them assassinated as she feared her husband, 52, was set to leave her for a porn star and needed both him and his mother, Bernice, 87, dead to inherit his fortune.
Maxwell has launched an appeal against her sentence, but if unsuccessful, plans are already afoot to have an application lodged to serve her time in Britain.
"Calculations have been carried out as to where Ghislaine would serve the least time behind bars," a source told the Mirror.
"She is happy to be freed on licence just to get out of prison, and her best option for getting out quicker is back in the UK."
With good behaviour, Maxwell could see almost three years taken off her sentence in the US.
But after three years in the States, she is entitled to apply to serve the remainder of her sentence in the UK.
If successful, it would mean if Maxwell were to transfer to a British prison, she would have only 91 months - seven years and seven months left - before she is eligible to be released on licence.
She would be 70 by the time she would be freed, not 75 as her US prison record shows.
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