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Ghislaine Maxwell May End Up At Same Detention Center Where Jeffrey Epstein Died
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jul 4, 2020
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JASON SZENES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jul 4, 2020
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Ghislaine Maxwell is reportedly being held in a medium-security jail in New Hampshire while awaiting transfer back to New York City to face four counts of sex crimes related to a minor and two counts of perjury.
The socialite and longtime former companion to financier Jeffrey Epstein -- who was charged with federal sex trafficking charges involving minors before he committed suicide in a Manhattan jail cell last year -- and his alleged accomplice in a litany of sex crimes, Maxwell was taken to Merrimack County Jail, about 20 miles from the luxury compound in Bradford, New Hampshire where she was arrested Thursday after spending a year dodging authorities.
Merrimack County Jail’s website is described as a “state-of-the-art correctional facility located on Daniel Webster Highway in Boscawen, New Hampshire. Our inmate population housed inside the facility includes male and female inmates who are awaiting arraignment, pre-trial and/or sentenced, administrative transfers from other correctional facilities, and federal inmates.”
Merrimack County Jail, where Ghislaine Maxwell is being held.
Merrimack County
Maxwell waived her right to a bail hearing in federal court in Manchester, New Hampshire and was ordered held in custody and expected to be transferred to federal facilities in New York to face arraignment -- she would likely be transferred to one of two federal facilities, either the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan or the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Her arrest and detention ends about a year from the time investigators, attorneys, and tabloids were seeking Maxwell, who was reported to have been evading authorities by flying around the world, leaving her whereabouts a mystery until Thursday.
A transfer to MCC, the same facility where Epstein died after he was found hanging in his jail cell in August 2019, raises questions about how Maxwell will be monitored while in custody.
While the medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide, the case has spurred many questions, from disappearing footage to allegations of systemic mismanagement over at the MCC on how they handled an inmate who had been on suicide watch.
Maxwell’s condition in custody will be closely monitored wherever she ends up, said Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss at Thursday’s press conference. “As you know, we are sensitive to that concern and certainly we’ll be in dialogue with the Bureau of Prisons about it,” she said.
Both facilities are notorious for substandard conditions -- MCC has been described as a “gulag” with filthy conditions, vermin infestations, substandard medical care, and violence and abuse at the hands of guards, while MDC was also called a “humanitarian nightmare” when inmates went without heat and electricity last winter. MDC is also the same facility where Jamel Floyd, 35, died last month after being pepper sprayed by authorities.
Like Epstein, Maxwell’s case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Public Corruption Unit, which is tasked with investigating elected officials -- it’s the same unit that investigated former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with a prostitution ring in 2008.
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jeffrey epstein
ghislaine maxwell
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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