For inmates like Epstein, suicide watch is meant to be temporary

NEW YORK — Suicide is such a constant concern at federal jails that guards have ready access to “the stick,” a wooden pole with a sharpened blade at the end that’s used to cut down inmates if they try to hang themselves with bedsheets.

That’s believed to be exactly how Jeffrey Epstein took his life Saturday at the Metropolitan Correctional Center’s Special Housing Unit after a possible previous attempt, and less than two weeks after he had been taken off suicide watch, in which the lights are left on all night, inmates are not allowed bedsheets, and they are monitored round-the-clock by someone making notes every 15 minutes.

For all the talk from politicians and conspiracy theorists that Epstein should have remained under such scrutiny behind bars, prison experts say suicide watch is intended for only short periods because it puts too much stress on the staff and inmate alike.

“It’s just not humane to keep them on those restrictions indefinitely,” said Lindsay Hayes, a nationally recognized expert on inmate suicide prevention and a project director for the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives. “Many times, suicidal inmates will deny they’re suicidal so they can get their clothes and privileges back.”

The 66-year-old Epstein was awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls when he killed himself, taking his life amid a cascading series of breakdowns at the MCC’s Special Housing Unit, a chronically overcrowded, understaffed lockup-within-a-lockup that has held some of the world’s most notorious terrorists, drug lords, sex traffickers and swindlers. The SHU can hold several dozen inmates at once.

It’s not known exactly how many inmates have taken their own lives over the years at MCC, but federal Bureau of Prisons figures show at least 124 killed themselves in the agency’s prisons and jails between fiscal years 2010 and 2016. There was no breakdown on how many were on suicide watch.

Getting on suicide watch requires a determination by the institution’s suicide prevention coordinator, usually its chief psychologist, that a person may be in imminent danger of suicide.

Hayes said it is not unusual for inmates on suicide watch to be taken off after a few days, because the conditions are so oppressive.

Guidelines say inmates are removed from suicide watch only when they are deemed no longer an imminent risk for suicide and only after face-to-face evaluation by the chief psychologist or a doctorallevel psychologist.