Exclusive: Inmates describe being punished for speaking out about Ghislaine Maxwell

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https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/07/politics ... es-epstein

Julie Howell did not know what she was getting into last year when she was asked about a new inmate who had arrived at her prison – or that she was about to become an unwitting supporting character in the ongoing drama around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It started when Howell received an unusual email from her husband in August: A reporter with The Telegraph wanted to know how she felt about the fact that Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, had just been transferred to her minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas.

Howell had plenty of thoughts, as did some of the other inmates. After consulting the prison handbook and a fellow inmate to try to confirm there was no prohibition against speaking to the press, Howell — who had recently started serving a one-year prison sentence for stealing almost $1 million from Tarleton State University, where she had been an associate professor — shared her views in a message for her husband to forward to the reporter.