The ladies’s-only Texas prison that disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will call home for the subsequent decade used male guards to conduct “shower checks” and has faced a half-dozen sexual misconduct allegations prior to now yr, in response to a former inmate on the federal minimum-security lockup and official records.
Lynn Espejo, who spent nearly two years at Bryan Federal Prison Camp from 2018 until early 2020, made the shocking allegation to The Post that male guards checked in on inmates within the showers — and claimed a few of them were “having sex with women” inmates.
“You’re within the shower and the guard [could] are available there to see what you’re as much as,” Espejo told The Post.
Holmes arrived on the Texas prison Tuesday to serve greater than 11 years after being convicted on 4 counts of wire fraud. The 39-year-old former Silicon Valley darling has two young children with boyfriend Billy Evans.
Espejo – who documented her incarceration at Bryan on a blog with posts she would surreptitiously send to a friend – alleged that male guards were deployed to walk in on women within the shower as a part of a jail technique to crack down on consensual sexual encounters among the many inmates.
Espejo also claimed to The Post that the prison didn’t adhere to federal guidelines that require sufficient numbers of female guards be staffed in order that they’ll perform strip searches.
Federal regulations and Bureau of Prison policies mandate that strip searches be conducted by a staff member who is identical gender because the inmate being searched, in response to a Justice Department memo.
In a blog post dated Feb. 23, 2020, Espejo wrote: “A lot of us are extremely upset regarding FPC Bryan’s decision to have male staff do shower checks on female inmates.”
One other former Bryan inmate who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity backed up Espejo’s claims about “shower checks” and sexual encounters between guards and prisoners .
Espejo said Holmes shouldn’t need to worry about being ogled by the male guards while washing up since the shower checks were “short-lived.”.
“They began allowing males to do it and I wrote them up for policy violations because I saw women terrified,” Espejo claimed to The Post, adding she was transferred to a different federal prison after Bryan officials caught wind of her blog.
In one other blog entry, the 59-year-old Arkansas resident wrote: “Lots of the women being housed here have been raped, sexually abused or had other traumas.”
“Just hearing a male voice in the toilet where they’re naked and vulnerable triggers these past traumas and places them in a state of high anxiety and fear.”
A BOP spokesperson told The Post that the agency is declining to “comment on anecdotal allegations.”
“The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and FPC Bryan take seriously our duty to guard the individuals entrusted in our custody and maintain the protection of correctional staff and the community, as this stays one in all the very best priorities for the BOP,” the agency said.
Espejo alleged that inmates at Bryan are sometimes “manipulated into having sex” with prison guards.
“It’s an issue and it does occur at Bryan,” she told The Post.
“Women decided to go that route for extra food or for something from the skin, regardless of the guard was bringing them.”.
In accordance with documents posted by BOP, there have been six sexual abuse investigations between 2022 and 2023 on the prison — five of those involved alleged inmate-on-inmate incidents while one was a staff-on-inmate allegation.
Prison officials found that five of those allegations, including the staff-on-inmate incident, were unfounded while one was unsubstantiated.
Larry Levine, a former convict who served time in prison and who now owns a consultancy firm which advises soon-to-be-inmates before their incarceration, told The Post that Holmes can be a possible goal for others within the prison anticipating some company.
“She’s an excellent looking woman and the feminine bisexual lesbians will find her very attractive, no joke,” Levine told The Post.
Levine, who claims to keep up a correspondence with current and former Bryan inmates, said that some prison guards at Bryan are known to have a wandering eye.
“They leer at the ladies, they flirt with them, they struggle to offer them special privileges [in exchange for sex],” he said.
Espejo – who was released in 2020 throughout the pandemic and had her sentence commuted the next yr – told The Post that Holmes most definitely is not going to have to worry about male guards approaching her for sex.
“She would need to wish to be involved,” Espejo said.
Holmes can be not going going to be forced to do anything by her fellow inmates, either, the ex-con said.
“She may be very pretty,” Espejo, who maintains contacts with current inmates at Bryan, told The Post.
“It’s possible that somebody would make a pass at her.”
“But when she says ‘No, that’s not my thing,’ they’re going to depart her alone,” Espejo said.
“They’re not going to attempt to force that on her.”
“The ladies are nice and for those who go in there and also you treat others respectfully and also you act humble and nice, she’s going to make friends in there and the ladies are going to be nice to her,” in response to Espejo.
“She’s not going to be beat up. She’s not going to be threatened or anything like that.”
Holmes’ incarceration is a surprising fall from grace for the once-heralded entrepreneur.
BOP documents indicate that prison officials often investigate allegations of sexual abuse and harassment in minimum-security facilities housing women.
Essentially the most recent reports documenting alleged violations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) found that 4 investigations were launched at FPC Alderson in West Virginia between 2020 and 2021.
Two of the allegations were found to have been unsubstantiated while two were left “open for review,” in response to documents.
4 alleged incidents of inmate-on-inmate sexual abuse and one allegation of inmate-on-inmate sexual harassment were reported at FCI Aliceville between 2020 and 2021.
Three of the inmate-on-inmate sexual abuse allegations were unsubstantiated while one was unfounded.
The sexual harassment allegation was unsubstantiated.
