Holmes reported to the federal prison in Bryan, Texas, on Tuesday to begin serving an 11-year sentence for her conviction on multiple counts of defrauding investors while running the now-defunct startup Theranos. Her request for bail was denied by an appeals court earlier this month.
Located about 100 miles from Houston, where Holmes grew up before moving to California to attend Stanford, FPC Bryan is a minimum-security federal prison that holds more than 600 female inmates.
Theranos Elizabeth Holmes is moved by prison officials into the Federal Prison Camp on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, in Bryan, Texas. Photo: CNN
It's also the facility where Jennifer Shah, an actress on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City," is serving time in connection with a telemarketing fraud scheme.
Holmes herself had appeared on magazine covers, appeared at conferences alongside the likes of Bill Clinton, and attracted investors to Theranos, which promised to create technology that could test for a range of health problems with just a few drops of blood. But it all began to unravel after a Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015. Holmes is now the rare Silicon Valley founder to be tried and convicted of fraud.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, federal prisons are minimum-security institutions with dormitory housing, relatively low guard-to-staff ratios, and limited or no perimeter fencing. These prisons are sometimes nicknamed “Camp Fed” because they are less restrictive than other facilities.
But prison won't be a walk in the park for Holmes, according to Mark MacDougall, a longtime defense attorney and former federal prosecutor.
“I think people who talk about ‘Camp Fed’ have never actually been in a federal correctional facility,” MacDougall told CNN.
According to MacDougall, FPC Bryan is likely to have a lot of white-collar criminals. He said housing at FPC Bryan is typically arranged in dormitory style with a four-story cubicle and shared bathrooms. “There is no privacy,” he said.
Holmes will also only be able to see his children and family during visiting hours on weekends and federal holidays at FPC Bryan.
As MacDougall said, “anyone who thinks she will be in a pleasant environment or have an easy time in it is kidding themselves.”
Mai Anh (according to CNN)
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