Ghislaine Maxwell Joins The Real Housewives of Minimum Security Prison

The convicted sex offender has been moved to Federal Prison Camp Bryan, home to former Bravo star Jen Shah and Theranos scammer Elizabeth Holmes

Ghislaine Maxwell’s new home (Wikimedia)

What do you get when you’re found guilty of “perpetrating heinous crimes against children?”

The celebrity treatment, apparently.

Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell was recently transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, a minimum-security facility that houses 635 women, most of them non-violent offenders.

The population includes two notorious celebrities: disgraced Silicon Valley C.E.O. Elizabeth Holmes and former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah.

Shockingly, the news did not go over well, especially with the people most affected by Maxwell’s crimes.

“The American public should be outraged by the special treatment afforded to a pedophile and a criminally charged child sex offender,” said the family of Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein survivor who died by suicide in April, in a statement.

The timing of the transfer is beyond suspicious. Maxwell was moved days after meeting with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche for nine hours, fueling speculation she might be angling for a pardon from Trump, who is desperate to make his Epstein troubles go away. According to Allison Gill, Maxwell’s relocation was only possible because someone in the Bureau of Prisons waived her sex-offender status.

The fact that Maxwell is now incarcerated with two famous people who broke the law — but never sexually abused children — only makes the optics worse.

Holmes famously dropped out of Stanford to start a blood-testing company that promised to transform healthcare but turned out to be a scam. She was found guilty of defrauding Theranos investors and sentenced to 11 years in prison, but continues to profess her innocence, claiming that “failure is not fraud.”

Shah, a colorful presence on the Utah-based edition of Bravo’s signature reality franchise for three seasons, was arrested in March 2021 on federal fraud charges connected to a nationwide telemarketing scheme targeting the elderly. She maintained her innocence until the last minute, pleading guilty just before going to trial. She was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.

Holmes put people’s lives and health at risk by misleading the public about Theranos’ flawed technology. Shah built an “opulent lifestyle at the expense of vulnerable, often elderly, working-class people,” according to prosecutors.

But unlike Maxwell, neither Holmes nor Shah played a central role in a sex-trafficking ring targeting children. The former socialite was born into extraordinary privilege as the youngest child of publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, who died under mysterious circumstances in 1991 and left his businesses in ruin. It’s possible to imagine another timeline in which Maxwell, a fitfully employed trust-fund baby who was once regularly featured in the pages of Tatler, became a reality TV star. She certainly has the resumé for it.

Instead, Maxwell spent roughly a decade helping Epstein, her former boyfriend, recruit, groom, and abuse girls as young as 14 years old. There was an undeniable class dimension to their crimes. According to prosecutors, Maxwell and Epstein often preyed on “vulnerable girls, typically from single-mother households and difficult financial circumstances.” Maxwell was not only present when Epstein abused some of these girls, she also participated in the abuse on numerous occasions. (You can read a laundry list of her crimes here, if you have the stomach for it.)

After Epstein’s arrest and mysterious death in 2019, Maxwell went into hiding. She was arrested in July 2020 at a secluded 156-acre estate in New Hampshire that she reportedly purchased through an LLC. (A listing for the property calls the estate a “privacy lover’s dream.”) When F.B.I. agents knocked on the door, she tried to hide.

Avoiding detection will be difficult at Maxwell’s new home, which like most federal prison camps has dormitory housing, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as well as limited perimeter fencing and a low staff-to-inmate ratio. These facilities are often referred to as “Club Fed” because of their relatively lenient atmosphere. FPC Bryan also offers a full gym and a puppy-training program.

The women of FPC Bryan do not seem thrilled about their high-profile new neighbor.

“Every inmate I’ve heard from is upset she’s here,” Julie Howell, who is currently serving a one-year sentence for theft at FPC Bryan and whose teenage daughter was trafficked, told The Telegraph. “This facility is supposed to house non-violent offenders. Human trafficking is a violent crime.” The paper reported that upon her arrival at the facility, “prisoners were allegedly locked down and had the blinds shut in an apparent effort to shield her from view.”

She has already brought more attention to the facility, which has been a paparazzi target since Shah reported to prison in February 2023, followed by Holmes in May 2023 (not long after she gave birth to her second child.)

For the last two years, their jailhouse activities have been exhaustively chronicled by the media in an ongoing saga that could be dubbed The Real Housewives of Minimum Security Prison. Countless stories have been written about how their diets, wardrobe, relationships and once high-flying lifestyles have changed in prison.

Much of the coverage is steeped in schadenfreude, noting how Shah, who once employed a glam squad and lived in a (rented) 9000 square-foot chalet in Park City, now has to do her own hair and makeup. Or how Holmes, who was once worth an estimated $4.5 billion, now makes 31 cents an hour helping inmates brush up their resumés and is too broke to pay back the investors she defrauded.

The women have been photographed jogging together (or at least near each other). Holmes has reportedly been toning her core in Shah’s fitness class (called “Shah-mazing Abs,” of course). There are even reports that the infamous scammers have struck up a friendship.

“They’re both rehabilitating and have bonded over being on this journey of positive change,” Shah’s rep told People in 2023. (Holmes hasn’t said much about Shah. Make of this what you will.)

Both Shah and Holmes are well-versed in working the media to their advantage — and continue to spin the narrative from prison. Shah is an expert pot-stirrer with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for attention, traits that made her a breakout star on RHOSLC. Her manager regularly talks to the press about what she’s up to at “Club Fed.”

Before her downfall, Holmes was a media darling celebrated in numerous credulous cover stories. Modeling herself on founders like Steve Jobs, she cultivated an eccentric persona, wearing a black turtleneck and speaking in an artificially low voice — all so that she would be taken seriously, she told the New York Times in 2023 (in what ironically turned out to be another fawning profile.)

Holmes continues to wield influence in prison. Her arrival at FPC Bryan was eagerly anticipated by inmates who were keen to befriend her. At the time, she was breastfeeding a newborn and convinced prison wardens to add multiple lactation rooms to the facility. Still, Holmes has found plenty to complain about. “It’s been hell and torture to be here,” she told People magazine.

Shah has adopted a more contrite, cheerfully self-promotional tone. On her personal website, she posts occasional diary entries about participating in Barbie hair contests and the resilience of her fellow inmates. She seems to be rebranding herself as an exercise guru, plugging those “shah-mazing workouts.” “I remain consistent in my passion for fitness and helping other inmates achieve similar goals,” she shared in a recent update with a picture of her jumping rope.

It seems unlikely that Maxwell will seek as much publicity from the confines of “Club Fed.” Then again, it seems to work: Trump recently pardoned reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who, while still in prison, planted stories suggesting they were being persecuted for their conservative beliefs.

Both Holmes and Shah have had their sentences reduced. Shah is now slated for release in late 2026, while Holmes is scheduled to get out in 2032.

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years, and will be incarcerated until 2037, unless the Supreme Court overturns her conviction, or Trump grants her a pardon.

Which would be the opposite of shah-mazing.

Meredith Blake is the culture columnist for The Contrarian