Global Courant 2023-05-19 01:30:17
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes may soon be leaving California for a minimum security women’s prison about 100 miles from her hometown in Texas.
The disgraced former CEO has been ordered to report to jail at the end of the month, and a judge has recommended that she serve her more than 11-year sentence at Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas (known as FPC Bryan).
This week, a judge rejected Holmes’ latest offer to remain free while she appealed her conviction.
She was found guilty last year of defrauding investors in her blood testing start-up.
Holmes reportedly spent her last few weeks off in a rental home in San Diego, California with her partner, hotel heir William Evans, and their two young children, including one who is three months old.
Soon she may be wearing khaki pants and a khaki shirt and being woken up at 6 a.m. every day with other female inmates at FPC Bryan, according to a handbook for the prison.
The BBC has contacted the prison for comment.
The facility, which sits on 37 acres, is home to more than 500 inmates — most of whom are serving time for non-violent crimes and white-collar crimes.
Holmes, who grew up partly in Houston, Texas, wouldn’t be the first celebrity to spend time in the prison camp. Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah is serving a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence there for telephony fraud.
The famous entrepreneur may have roommates in prison. According to Pink Lady Prison Consultants, a prison advisory group led by former inmates, inmates are usually housed in double bunk beds in dormitories and four- to eight-person cubicles.
Life in the federal facility revolves around work and extracurricular programs, the prison manual says.
All inmates are expected to work and earn between 12p and $1.15 (£0.90) an hour for their job. Many are involved in food service and factory work.
Holmes has spent time with her partner William Evans (right) and their two young children
Outside of work, female inmates can take classes on business skills and foreign languages, watch television, play sports and attend religious services, according to the handbook.
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Holmes would get an hour for every meal at the facility, which offers a standard Federal Bureau of Prisons menu consisting of foods such as chicken, burgers, hot dogs, tacos and macaroni.
According to the prison manual, she was able to talk to her family via video calls. Detainees are also allowed visitors during weekends and holidays, but like other detainees, Holmes would be allowed limited physical contact with her partner and young children.
Rules at the women-only facility are also strict, the handbook says, adding that inmates “are treated in a mature and responsible manner” and “are expected to act accordingly.”
Detainees may face disciplinary action for a number of actions, including failing to keep their cell or room tidy, sleeping longer than the early wake-up time, sharing their phone account with other detainees, and leaving an area during an official roll call of a prisoner, which happens five times a day.
Holmes’ time behind bars will be in stark contrast to her past life. Once hailed as the “next Steve Jobs”, the startup’s founder is said to be the youngest self-made billionaire in the world, making the cover of Forbes and other prominent magazines.
She started Theranos shortly after she dropped out of Stanford University. As the leader of the company, she raised millions of dollars from high-profile investors, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
But the startup fell apart in 2018 after it was revealed that Holmes and other executives lied about the company’s technology. The blood test device could perform a large number of tests with just a few drops of blood.
In addition to serving time in prison, Holmes must pay $452 million to the victims of her fraud. She will share the amount with her former romantic and business partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who is serving a 13-year prison sentence in April.
