[imagesource: Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images]

Guards at the Brooklyn, New York, federal jail where Ghislaine Maxwell is being kept are taking no chances.

15 months after Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell’s former boyfriend, died from what was officially ruled a suicide by hanging in another New York jail, a lawyer representing Maxwell says she is woken every 15 minutes to ensure she is still breathing.

Bobbi Sternheim told a Manhattan judge yesterday that her client is being treated worse than inmates who have already been convicted of murder or terrorism charges.

Maxwell is currently in a 14-day quarantine after possible exposure to COVID-19, and has thus far tested negative.

Sternheim also raised further issues with Maxwell’s treatment, reports CNBC:

Sternheim…said that Maxwell was threatened with seven more days in quarantine if she declined to undergo two nasal swabs testing her for the coronavirus.

Sternheim complained that Maxwell was ordered to remove a Covid-protection mask for “an in-mouth inspection,” and initially was not given soap or a toothbrush when she began quarantine.

Image: AP Photo/John Minchillo

The lawyer also said that medical staff has ceased doing daily checks on Maxwell, and have “neither informed her of results of the COVID tests” nor responded to her question of what she should do if she becomes symptomatic.

Sternheim asked the judge to intervene to ensure that Maxwell’s living conditions are improved.

The disgraced socialite will go on trial next year, on charges related to recruiting and grooming underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

In that respect, she should perhaps be thankful that she is in isolation, rather than being housed with the rest of the inmates.

As we have seen from Maxwell’s 2016 deposition, she remains steadfast in her refusal to both admit any form of guilt and implicate Epstein.

Over and above the in-person checks every 15 minutes, there are also cameras. More from Sternheim:

 “In addition to camera surveillance in her cell, a supplemental camera follows her movement when she is permitted to leave her isolation cell and is focused on Ms. Maxwell and counsel during in-person legal visits.”

“And 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.”

Manhattan federal Judge Alison Nathan has now ordered that a status report be sent her way within the next week, following a meeting between Sternheim and prosecutors.

While the legalities play out behind closed doors, Maxwell will find sympathy from the general public rather hard to come by.

[source:cnbc]