By now, everyone knows that the US Bureau of Prisons had to waive a rule prohibiting sex offenders to allow Ghislaine Maxwell to enter – wholly unjustified – the minimum security women’s prison in Bryan, Texas, or “Club Fed.” What may not be known is just how different the facility, primarily used for upper-income people convicted of white collar crimes, is from what everyone on earth regards as “real prison.” Indeed, given the amenities in the new prison, especially in comparison to the conditions we’re assured are predominant in “real prison,” Maxwell may already feel freed. This may literally be the major part of any “deal” she made with Deputy Attorney General and former Donald Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche. The move might constitute the ultimate deal, right up until she is pardoned during one of Trump’s last days. Of course, given the blatant modus operandi on this one, no one can rule out a pardon in the next few weeks. Some might say that the conditions in the new prison make a pardon almost irrelevant. They get to have puppies.
According to a report in The Telegraph:
Beyond work, inmates may take classes on foreign languages, gardening, and beautification. They can play sports, watch television, and attend religious services. They are also granted freedoms not available in most low-security prisons, including more relaxed visiting hours and more time outside, and lower guard-to-inmate ratios. For inmates trying to trim down, the prison has a gym kitted out with treadmills, elliptical trainers, stairmasters, and a range of weights.
Outside, convicts can take part in sports including football, table tennis, softball, volleyball, weightlifting, yoga, Pilates and the Jumpstart weight loss programme. There are also picnic tables, bleachers and televisions available for prisoners to wind down.
In what might otherwise seem like a good idea, the prison also affords inmates the opportunity to participate in a puppy training program for dogs that are to become people-assist animals. The dogs even get to sleep in the convicts’ “rooms” (not cells), which have bunkbeds and are four to a room. According to one inmate, who said of the puppy program: “We do water and mud play and keep them busy from morning until night with some kennel rests in between.” She supervises the puppies “at all times.” The same prisoner said that she “absolutely loves it.”
One of the more depressing things about the prison is that it seems as though the inmates are selected for their attractiveness and wealth, not so much the level of offense (though all, except Maxwell, are in for financial crimes). A list of inmates reads like a who’s who of socially upstanding inmates. There is Jen Shah, the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star, who is in for six years for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. “Other high-profile inmates include Michelle Janavs, the Hot Pockets heiress, who served five months in Bryan for bribing university officials to inflate her daughters’ exam scores. And there is Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, who is serving an 11-year sentence for defrauding investors by falsely claiming her company’s blood-testing technology was revolutionary,” among many others listed in the report.
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Can I hurl now, or should I wait? I can only begin to imagine the quid quo pro embedded in all this. Just imagine all those violated little girls violated yet once again. This White House gives whole new meaning to gross, grotesque, heinous and hideous. I hope all those evangelicals who gave a ceremonial pass to this debauchery are pleased with their choices.