Inside the 'troubled' Brooklyn prison where Ghislaine Maxwell is being held

Ghislaine Maxwell is residing in a New York prison notorious for its history of bad conditions and mistreatment of inmates while she awaits trial on charges of sex trafficking for the dead financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Ms Maxwell, a former girlfriend of the convicted sex offender, has been charged with recruiting women and girls as young as 14 for Epstein to abuse.

She was picked up in a small town in New Hampshire in July, where she had bought a secluded property named "Tucked Away", and was remanded into custody.

The British socialite has now been transferred to New York City and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, the Bureau of Prisons announced.

The Brooklyn lockup, whose most notable former inmates include the actress Alison Mack and the singer R Kelly, has previously earned a reputation as one of the worst federal jails in the US owing to a string of investigations into prisoner abuse and its poor conditions.

Home to around 1,600 inmates, both male and female, the high-rise building is wedged between the Brooklyn waterfront and an expressway with high security and limited space for recreational activities.

The jail's former warden, Cameron Lindsay, called it "one of the most troubled" federal facilities in the prison system with a "unique history of staff misconduct".

In 2007, 11 MDC prison guards were charged with beating inmates in a horrific attack which left one prisoner's cell covered in a pool of blood and strewn with clumps of hair.

The guards were also accused of covering up the beatings by filing false reports on the attacks which occurred in 2002 and 2006.

The jail also endured a sexual assault scandal, with a 2018 investigation leading to three prison officers being convicted of sexual abuse of female inmates, including one lieutenant who repeatedly raped a prisoner.

In 2016 a judge expressed reluctance about sending women to the Brooklyn jail because, she said, its conditions made it sound like it was in “some third-world country”.

Last year there was a public outcry over the MDC's poor conditions after a week-long power failure left the building without heating or lighting during one of the coldest weeks of the year.

Congressmen who toured the facility in the aftermath reported "unacceptable conditions", with inmates shut up for long periods of time and heard banging on their cells in pleas for help.

The MDC continues to be plagued by reports of misconduct; last month an inmate died after prison staff sprayed him with pepper spray, which has led to an investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general. In May, another inmate at the facility died.

Questions have been raised over why Ms Maxwell is being housed in the Brooklyn facility when she will be tried on the sex trafficking charges in Manhattan.

Some have speculated that the Prisons Bureau is keen to avoid any comparisons with Epstein's incarceration. The financier killed himself in a Manhattan jail last August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The US Attorney General, William Barr, said the circumstances which resulted in Epstein's death was the "perfect storm of screw ups".

"Somebody made the conscious decision, 'let's not house her where Epstein was housed'," said Jack Donson, a former prison official who worked for the Bureau of Prisons for more than two decades.

Mr Donson, who has visited the jail numerous times, told Reuters he had seen staff acting "downright unprofessional", yelling and swearing at inmates.

Mr Donson said he expects Ms Maxwell will be closely watched while in custody, possibly even with a camera fixed on her cell to avoid a repeat of the errors that led to Epstein's suicide.

Under the prison system's coronavirus protocols, Ms Maxwell faces an immediate 14-day quarantine and will be tested for the virus.

Five inmates and six staff members are currently reported to have the virus. A further eight inmates and 35 staff members previously diagnosed have recovered from the disease.

Ms Maxwell, the daughter of the late British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, has been indicted on multiple charges, including that she conspired to entice girls as young as 14 to engage in illegal sex acts with Epstein from 1994 through to 1997. She faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted on the charges against her.

Several of Epstein's victims have described Ms Maxwell as his chief enabler, recruiting and grooming young girls for abuse. She has denied wrongdoing and called claims against her "absolute rubbish".

She is central to allegations made by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has claimed she was trafficked from the US to London and forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17.

Prince Andrew has always strongly denied the claims, maintaining that he has no recollection of meeting Ms Giuffre.

US prosecutors say Ms Maxwell is an "extreme" flight risk, with three passports, an international network of wealthy friends, and "absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence".

The 58-year-old is due to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Friday for a bail hearing.