Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes says prison has been ‘hell and torture’ in new interview

Speaking with People magazine in her first interview since reporting to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Bryan, Texas, Holmes maintained her innocence and said she was “not the same person I was back then.”

Holmes, the founder and CEO of blood-testing startup Theranos, is roughly two years into her 11.25-year sentence, which has been reduced to nine years for good behavior.  In her talk with People, she says her best moments in prison are the twice-weekly visits from her children and partner. And she never expected she would actually go to jail, she revealed.

“I always wanted to be a mother,” she told the magazine. “I truly did not think I would ever be convicted or found guilty.”

As part of her prison routine, Holmes wakes up daily at around 5:00 a.m., eats a breakfast of fruit, then does 40 minutes of exercise. At 8:00 a.m. she begins her job, as a reentry clerk at the facility’s education building, earning 31 cents per hour. There, she helps women write résumés and apply for tax credits. She also works as a law clerk and teaches a French class, the magazine says.

Once a week she attends cognitive and behavioral therapy for PTSD overseen by a psychiatrist. And in her spare time, she reads, everything from I Ching to the Harry Potter novels. Twice a day, she calls her family, often waiting an hour or more for a phone to open up.

While she is scheduled to be a prisoner through 2032, Holmes maintains she is unfairly imprisoned.

“I refused to plead guilty to crimes I did not commit,” she said. “Theranos failed. But failure is not fraud.”

As for her post-prison life, Holmes says she plans to return to the world of health care technology and is already working on new inventions.

“There is not a day I have not continued to work on my research and inventions,” she said. “I remain completely committed to my dream of making affordable health care solutions available to everyone.”