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Allison Mack in 2019 (Jemal Countess/Getty Images).
Allison Mack, a pivotal right-hand woman to prolific sexual abuser and cult leader Keith Raniere, was released from federal prison on Monday, online records show.
The 40-year-old actress, previously best known for her role on the Superman TV show “Smallville,” faced sentencing guidelines of 14 to 17.5 years behind bars, but prosecutors credited her with helping them take down the lead defendant, who is currently serving a 120-year term. Mack had turned herself in on Sept. 13, 2021 for a three-year sentence on two counts of racketeering.
“Allison Mack was released from the custody of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) on July 3, 2023, via First Step Act (FSA) release,” the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in an email Wednesday to Law&Crime. “The last BOP institution in which she was located was the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin.”
The BOP further said in the statement:
While we don’t discuss a specific inmate’s release method, we can share that an inmate may earn good conduct time. Prior to the FSA, qualifying inmates earned up to 54 days of good conduct time for each year served and, in accordance with 18 USC § 3624(b), the BOP pro-rated the amount of good conduct time earned for the final year of service of sentence. Under the amendments made by the FSA, qualifying inmates will be eligible to earn up to 54 days of good conduct time for each year of the sentence imposed by the court. This information may be found via our public website at https://www.bop.gov/inmates/fsa/faq.jsp#fsa_good_conduct_time. Additionally, inmates may release up to 12 months early if they complete the BOP’s Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP), and inmates may release early via court orders such as a compassionate release (due to old age and medical conditions) or clemency.
Survivors of the NVIXM cult, an ostensible self-help group based out of Albany, New York, said the actress played no small role in the visceral physical and sexual abuse that they suffered. One ex-NXIVM member, identified only as “Nicole,” testified that Mack pushed her friend India Oxenberg into a yearlong, forced 500-calorie-a-day diet with the goal being 107 pounds. She testified to being in a master-slave relationship with Mack, saying that she was branded as part of this process. The Smallville actress made her pose for routine naked group photos that were sent to Raniere, she said.
The defense maintained that Raniere manipulated Mack, demanding “complete devotion and fealty to the exclusion of all others.” They asked for no prison time. In essence, they argued, she had seen the light.
“None of these things can justify Ms. Mack’s past actions, or erase the harm done to the victims,” said a memorandum in 2021. “Ms. Mack will justifiably live with the resulting scorn and guilt for the rest of her life. However, having been finally removed from Raniere’s grip by these very proceedings and the unwavering support of her family and friends that they have engendered, Ms. Mack has regained the clarity she had lost as a member of Nxivm—clarity to see past Raniere’s lies and manipulations, and to understand the incalculable harm caused by the group she was a part of. That is why she pled guilty and worked to assist the Government in its prosecution of Raniere and others, and it is why she will appear before the Court for sentencing at peace with whatever sentence the Court imposes to atone for the wrongs in which she participated.”
That wasn’t enough for U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York.
“When it came to DOS and the monstrous crimes he committed in that organization, you were an essential accomplice,” he told Mack in sentencing, later saying, “Mr. Raniere could not have done that without you.”
Jessica Joan, one of the survivors, called the three years too lenient.
In a prerecorded statement, another survivor, Tabitha Chapman, wished Mack a “swift recovery” at the time, while also saying that the actress subjected her to “cruelty behind imagination.”
“I am heartbroken for you and I am heartbroken for all of the women who trusted you and were harmed,” she said.
“I am sorry to those of you that I brought into Nxivm,” Mack wrote in a 2021 letter addressing the survivors. “I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man. I am sorry that I encouraged you to use your resources to participate in something that was ultimately so ugly. I do not take lightly the responsibility I have in the lives of those I love and I feel a heavy weight of guilt for having misused your trust, leading you down a negative path. I am sorry to those of you whom I spoke to in a harsh or hurtful way. At the time, I believed I was helping. I believed in tough love and thought it was the path to personal empowerment. I was so confused. I never want to be someone who is considered mean, but those aspects of my humanity have been revealed in all of this; it has been devastating to reconcile.”
Adam Klasfeld contributed to this report.
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