Could Elizabeth Holmes' 11-year prison stay involve staging a play about her messy tenure
as the founder of Theranos? An incarcerated "real housewife" may offer some clues.
In November of 2022, Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in
prison for her role as the founder of the failed blood testing company Theranos,
which defrauded people of millions. At the time of her sentencing,
Holmes issued a statement where she took responsibility for Theranos's shortcomings,
but did not explicitly take accountability for the fraud. She wrote in the statement:
"I'm so, so sorry. I gave everything I had to build our company and to save our
company. I regret my failings with every cell in my body."
It took several months before Holmes had to surrender herself to authorities. Her sentence
was initially supposed to start in late April of 2023, but she was able to get that delayed
by a month. Holmes spent her last weekend of freedom with her boyfriend Billy Evans and their
two children in San Diego. The family stayed at a home which is owned by Holmes's parents,
according to the Daily Mail. She had been staying with her parents since her sentencing.
Holmes will serve her 11 years in a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas. The difficulties
for the disgraced Theranos founder will begin shortly after her arrival. Lynn Espejo,
who served a 24-months sentence at Bryan from 2018 to 2020, detailed her experience to Fox
Business. She said that prisoners were strip-searched on arrival. Afterwards,
they were handed government-issued prison garb while their personal clothes were sent to family.
For the duration of her time in prison, Holmes will share a room with three other women. She will
also sleep on a bunk bed that has a small locker to keep her belongings. Fortunately for Holmes,
each new inmate is assigned a "big sister" to teach her the ins-and-outs of serving at
Camp Bryan. Prisoners have access to a prison-based email system,
and are allocated 300 minutes a month to talk on the phone. Espejo believed
that could be the biggest adjustment for Holmes. She told Fox Business:
"It is traumatic having your freedom taken away,
obviously. But just living away from your family like that."
While the Theranos founder would have limited time to speak with her family and children,
she would likely not have trouble forming bonds at Camp Bryan.
"She should have no problems there."
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal,
multiple inmates were excited for Holmes's arrival. Inmate Tasha Wade told the outlet:
"Some people are like 'I want to be her friend.'"
All inmates at Camp Bryan are assigned work duties. The most likely outcome for Elizabeth
Holmes when she begins her sentence is that she will work in the kitchen,
which is typical for new arrivals. However, former inmate Lynn Espejo told Fox Business
she believed that Holmes's business acumen would be put to work not long into her sentence. The
former entrepreneur could likely become a teacher for one of the prison work programs. After all,
Jen Shah of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" had the same exact job at Camp Bryan.
After being convicted of conspiracy criminal charges, Shah began her six and a half year
sentence at the Texas prison in February of 2023. According to her manager Chris Giovanni,
Shah endeared herself to fellow prisoners by working in one of the programs. In April, only two
months into her sentence, Shah was working on a stage play with fellow inmates that would be based
on the "Housewives" shows. They titled the project "The Real Housewives of Bryan," according to TMZ.
Shah was reportedly using the play as a device to help some fellow inmates learn to read and write.
Besides working alongside other prisoners in work programs, Shah was given other responsibilities.
As her manager told TMZ, she was responsible for the upkeep of her room which involved
keeping it clear of any mess. According to Page Six, Shah also disliked the food
so much that she lost 15 pounds in the first two months because she was barely eating. Is
that an indicator that Holmes will have the same experience? It's certainly possible.