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Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 91 Filed 12/07/20 Page 7 of 10
LAW OFFICES OF BOBBI C. STERNHEIM

anything like her current regime.⁴ The following conditions and circumstances of her detention, individually and collectively, compromise her opportunity to confer with counsel and prepare her defense for trial and are detrimental to her physical health and psychological well-being:

De Facto Solitary Confinement: Ms. Maxwell is the sole inmate in a housing unit. By this Court’s order she is permitted out of her approximately 9-by-7-foot isolation cell from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm, however, she is frequently picked up late and returned to her cell promptly. When out of her cell, she is the sole inmate in a fenced off area of an unoccupied dormitory unit, where she eats, showers, and reviews legal work while continually guarded by three officers.

Despite being housed on an entire floor by herself, Ms. Maxwell is forced back into a tiny corner of the floor. She is needlessly kept in a 63-square-foot space. She gets very little sleep, as she is frequently woken up by flashlights every 15 minutes, loud discussions among the guards, and adjustments of the supplemental camera. Ms. Maxwell is effectively being kept in solitary confinement (she has now been housed alone for well over 100 days) and treated as if she were on suicide watch even though she is not and has never been suicidal.

The psychological and physiological impact of solitary confinement is well documented. Ms. Maxwell has not, by her conduct or by virtue of the charges, brought this type of confinement upon herself. This must be considered punishment.

Further, she has been required to stand for an hour waiting for the lieutenant to move her and during “the count” of inmates she is restricted to her bunk despite being housed in a one-inmate unit. She has at times been forced to do a standup count after midnight. Now she is required to remain on a bed for the duration of the count.

Excessive Scanning and Strip Searching: Ms. Maxwell is searched more frequently and extensively than any other pretrial detainee of which we are aware. All security scans to which Ms. Maxwell have been subjected have returned negative results. Each time Ms. Maxwell is moved from the isolation cell, she is searched and her cell is searched, and the dormitory is searched prior to when she arrives at the dormitory area. Her cell and possessions including her legal papers are searched after she has been moved to the dormitory. The process is repeated when Ms. Maxwell is brought back to the isolation cell. Recently, Ms. Maxwell was searched at least five separate times and strip-searched twice during one day.

Ms. Maxwell is subjected to a body scans each week, and until recently, she received approximately three per week. We assume these are to see if Ms. Maxwell has secreted anything inside her body. We do not understand why it is necessary for the BOP to administer body scans on such a regular and frequent basis – and thereby repeatedly expose Ms. Maxwell to radiation –

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⁴ Undersigned counsel has represented clients charged with terrorism-related offenses confined to the most restrictive unit in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Unit 10 South, aka “the terrorist SHU”. In addition, counsel is Curcio counsel for a client authorized for the death penalty who is in general population at the MCC. Having visited BOP facilities during the past 35 years and representing clients charged with the most heinous and violent crimes of murder, counsel had never had a client subjected to such punitive conditions of pretrial (or post-conviction) incarceration as in the present case.

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