As Ghislaine Maxwell prepares to spend decades behind bars, her victims and other inmates are fuming that she's receiving special care.
On Tuesday, June 28, the embattled former socialite was sentenced to 20 years in prison and five years of supervised released after she was found guilty of federal sex trafficking. She was also ordered to pay $750,000 in fines for her horrific crimes. Now, Maxwell has reportedly been recommended to take part in the facility's Female Integrated Treatment (FIT) program which was designed to help women overcome trauma.
"This makes me sick," one of Maxwell's unnamed victims reportedly said per The Sun. "I had to pay thousands of dollars to get therapy and Maxwell is getting it for free. What about the trauma her victims suffered?"
Jacqueline Polverari — a previous inmate who was also incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, on a fraud conviction — pointed out her participation could become an issue because other FIT attendees had been sexually abused and trafficked themselves.
"Now you have a sexual predator in the same program," she continued. "Their PTSD has sky-rocketed. I don’t think it’s a good mix."
As OK! previously reported, a jury found Maxwell was guilty of five out of six sex-trafficking-related charges on Wednesday, December 29, 2021. Her convictions included conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors and the sex trafficking of minors.
Prior to her sentencing hearing, her legal team begged for leniency, insisting Maxwell was a victim herself — both of Jeffrey Epstein and of her father as a young girl. The attorneys described her childhood as being characterized by constant physical and emotional abuse by her father, Robert Maxwell. The court filing even alleged he once smashed her hand with a hammer when she was a teenager for putting up a poster on her bedroom wall.
