Elizabeth Holmes, once hailed as the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, is now serving time in federal prison.
Even so, her days behind bars are anything but empty.
At Federal Prison Camp Bryan, a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas, the former Theranos chief is pursuing a law apprenticeship, writing to mothers facing difficult circumstances, spending time with her children and pushing for changes to the prison system.
Holmes, whose story is explored in Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything, is also thinking about the future of healthcare—years after her conviction for conspiring to defraud investors in her collapsed blood-testing startup.
Here’s a closer look at Elizabeth Holmes’ life in prison and how she spends her time while serving her sentence:
What Was Elizabeth Holmes Arrested For?
Holmes became famous—and enormously wealthy—as the public face of Theranos, a company that claimed it could transform medical testing. Its central promise was a device capable of running a wide range of tests using only a small finger prick, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
Prosecutors said the technology did not perform as advertised and produced unreliable patient results, including readings connected to pregnancy and cancer screenings.
Authorities eventually uncovered what they described as an “elaborate fraud.” Holmes and her former romantic and business partner, Ramesh Balwani, were later arrested.
When Did Elizabeth Holmes Go to Prison?
Following a trial that lasted nearly four months, Holmes was found guilty in January 2022 of conspiring to defraud investors and three additional counts of wire fraud involving more than $140 million in transfers, prosecutors said. In November of that year, she received a sentence of 11 years and three months, though her time was later reduced for good behavior.
“For almost a decade, Elizabeth Holmes fabricated and spread elaborate falsehoods to draw in a legion of capital investors, both big and small, and her deceit caused the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds said at the time. “Her sentence reflects the audacity of her massive fraud and the staggering damage she caused.”
Holmes postponed her surrender while pregnant with her second child and ultimately entered prison in May 2023.
What is Elizabeth Holmes Life Like in Prison?
In a People interview published two years later, Holmes called incarceration “hell and torture” and continued to maintain that she was not guilty.
“Theranos failed,” she said. “But failure is not fraud.”
At the same time, Holmes has sought practical improvements within the facility, including speaking with the warden about establishing several lactation rooms.
Her daily schedule begins shortly after 5 a.m. in the prison’s dormitory-style housing. After breakfast, she typically completes a 40-minute workout.
She then reports to the education building, where she works as a reentry clerk. According to People, Holmes earns 31 cents per hour while assisting fellow inmates with resumes and helping them prepare to return to the community.
MORE STORY: Prosecutors: Husband Strangled Wife, Then Set Her Body Ablaze
Holmes also supports incarcerated women who survived sexual assault, takes cognitive behavioral therapy to address her own PTSD and reads during her downtime. Her reading list has reportedly included the ancient Chinese divination text I Ching as well as the Harry Potter books.
Her prison experience has also included academic progress. On Sept. 18, Holmes posted on X to mark her graduation from a law apprenticeship program completed during her incarceration.
“The symbolism of doing so for Constitutional law studies while held in a prison, fighting to prove my innocence, is radiating through me today,” she wrote. “There is no greater way I know to protect liberty than to defend our Constitution when it is trampled upon.”
Beyond her work and studies, Holmes has maintained important connections with people outside the prison.
“Every day I write letters with moms fighting for their children, fighting for love, fighting to build and protect that bond in the face of deployments or divorces or crushing work demands to be able to provide from them,” she added in a Sept. 29 post to her account on X, which her partner Billy Evans helps her run from behind bars. “What I know is that love transcends the physical. Bodies can be in two different places, and yet your hears can be in each other’s.”
Elizabeth Holmes Enjoys Weekly Visits With Partner Billy Evans, Her Children
She receives visits twice a week from Evans and their two children, son William and daughter Invicta. During those visits, she can hold her children and watch them play, but the farewells remain painful. Holmes told People that having to say goodbye “shatters my world every single time.”
“It kills me to put my family through pain the way I do,” she added. “But when I look back on my life, and these angels that have come into it, I can get through anything. It makes me want to fight for all of it.”
Holmes also addressed public scrutiny about why she chose to have two children, despite facing criminal charges.
“Yes I thought I would win at trial, and then on appeal,” she wrote on X Sept. 30. “I still believe I will prove my innocence, and the fact I haven’t yet torments me every single night. But I would give my life for a moment holding and loving them.”
She continued, “And I know they will grow up knowing what it means to stand in the face of impossible odds for what you know is right and true, and in so doing, be truly free.”
When Will Elizabeth Holmes Be Released?
Though Holmes’ official release date with the Bureau of Prisons is listed as Feb. 22, 2030, ABC News reported last month that she is expected to transition to a community correction center, or halfway house, in Del Valle, Texas on Aug. 23, 2027 to finish out her sentence.
Elizabeth Holmes Plans to Re-Enter Healthcare Arena After Release
After her release, Holmes told People she plans to continue to fight for reforms to the criminal justice system.
While behind bars, she drafted a American Freedom Act bill, which she called her “life’s work,” to strengthen the presumption of innocence for those facing criminal charges.
She’s also still envisioning ways she can re-enter the healthcare space.
“There is not a day I have not continued to work on my research and inventions,” she said, according to People. “I remain completely committed to my dream of making affordable healthcare solutions available to everyone.”
Meanwhile, Evans has launched a new blood testing company of his own he calls Haemanthus.