Bureau of Prisons defends treatment of Ghislaine Maxwell after her lawyers’ objections

Lawyers for the Federal Bureau of Prisons defended the treatment of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madame, Ghislaine Maxwell, in a letter to a U.S. district judge on Monday after Maxwell’s lawyer complained that jail officials were being invasive in their surveillance methods.

The letter, obtained by NBC News, claims that Maxwell is eating under a normal prison meal schedule and has access to numerous recreational activities including use of a computer and TV. She is also allowed to make up to eight hours of social calls on the phone per month.

The response from the prison bureau comes in response to a letter sent to Judge Alison Nathan in late November alleging that Maxwell is frequently subject to invasive searches and awoken every 15 minutes at night as a suicide precaution.

“Despite non-stop in-cell camera surveillance Ms. Maxwell’s sleep is disrupted every 15 minutes when she is awakened by a flashlight to ascertain whether she is breathing,” her attorney wrote at the time.

Maxwell is accused of facilitating the abuse of underage girls by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in what authorities ruled a suicide in his Manhattan jail cell last year while awaiting charges for sex trafficking.

Prosecutors have charged two guards with falsifying records to hide their failures to monitor Epstein prior to his death. Maxwell’s attorneys argue that she has never shown to be at risk of suicide and should not be subject to monitoring.

Maxwell was placed under quarantine for two weeks in November after coming into contact with a guard who later tested positive for COVID-19, though she herself never tested positive for the virus.