Bureau of Prisons chief is replaced

Move comes in wake of suicide by Epstein

Attorney General William Barr announced Monday that he is replacing the head of the Bureau of Prisons, marking the latest fallout from the death in federal custody of multimillionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Hugh Hurwitz, the agency’s acting head, will be replaced by Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, who served as Bureau of Prisons director from 1992 to 2003.

Barr also appointed Thomas Kane to serve as her deputy, a position currently vacant.

The move shows how the death of a single high-profile suspect is likely to have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for the $7 billion agency that has operated for years in relative obscurity. Even before Epstein’s death, Justice Department officials privately expressed frustration with senior officials at the Bureau of Prisons, but the apparent management flaws found since have angered the department’s leaders, including the attorney general, according to law enforcement officials.

“I am pleased to welcome back Dr. Hawk Sawyer as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons,” Barr said in a statement. “Under Dr. Hawk Sawyer’s previous tenure at the Bureau, she led the agency with excellence, innovation, and efficiency, receiving numerous awards for her outstanding leadership.”

Barr said Hurwitz would return to his previous role as an assistant director for the bureau’s re-entry programs. The attorney general did not mention the Epstein case in his announcement.

Epstein’s death has already led to a shake-up at the federal detention center where he was being held. The warden of the Metropolitan Correctional Center was reassigned, and the two guards who were supposed to be checking on his cell were placed on leave. Union officials have said such a death was inevitable because of short staffing and the forced overtime that guards are working.

The Justice Department sent additional Bureau of Prisons lieutenants from across the country to buttress the MCC workforce, and a suicide reconstruction team was sent to the facility to determine exactly how Epstein died, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Critics of the Bureau of Prisons have said Epstein’s death, along with other security failures, such as the still-uncharged killing of Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger at a West Virginia prison last year, should spur changes inside the federal prison system, which was hit with a hiring freeze in the beginning of the Trump administration. That freeze has since been lifted, but union officials say MCC and many other facilities are straining under the long-term effects of not having enough employees to operate effectively.

In a speech last week, Barr decried what he called a “failure” of Bureau of Prisons personnel to keep Epstein secure. Speaking to law enforcement officials in New Orleans, Barr said he “was appalled ... and, frankly, angry” to learn of Epstein’s apparent suicide.

“We are now learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning and demand a thorough investigation,” he said.

On Friday, the New York City chief medical examiner, Barbara Sampson, ruled that Epstein died as a result of suicide by hanging.

The 66-year-old was found in his cell early Aug. 10. An official said he hanged himself with a bedsheet attached to the top of a bunk bed. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.