Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide blamed on jail’s ‘negligence and misconduct’
The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was able to kill himself due to a “combination of negligence and misconduct” by authorities at a federal jail in New York City, a US justice department watchdog concluded.
Epstein hanged himself in his cell at the Metropolitan correctional center in Manhattan in August 2019, while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
A scathing report published on Tuesday by the justice department inspector general said “widespread disregard of BOP [bureau of prisons] policies and procedures” led to a surplus of bed linens being left in the cell, materials Epstein used in his suicide.
“The combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures documented in the report all contributed to an environment in which arguably one of the most notorious inmates in BOP’s custody was provided with the opportunity to take his own life,” Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, wrote.
Additionally, there were issues with maintaining working security cameras, the report said, while guards failed to check on Epstein as required and later falsified logs to say they had done so.
But although jail staff “engaged in significant misconduct”, Horowitz wrote, “we did not uncover evidence contradicting the FBI’s determination there was no criminality in connection with how Epstein died”.
The conclusion there was no foul play rebuts conspiracy theories popular in rightwing circles that Epstein was murdered to prevent him incriminating prominent figures said to have attended sex parties with underaged girls at his homes in New York and Florida and on a 75-acre Caribbean island retreat.
The justice department report is the last of several official inquiries into the death of Epstein, who was convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting a child for prostitution but benefited from a secret plea deal that allowed him to avoid serious prison time and granted immunity to co-conspirators.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press obtained more than 4,000 pages of jail records revealing details of Epstein’s 36 days in the Manhattan facility until his death, during which he was supposed to be on suicide watch after an earlier attempt.
The papers showed a chaotic response on the morning Epstein was found hanged, and revealed how severe staffing shortages, and corners cut by employees, were believed to have contributed.
The justice department report adds detail. Also among the findings by Horowitz was that authorities failed to assign Epstein a cellmate after another one left.
Horowitz said his report, and previous inquiries, “repeatedly identified longstanding operational challenges at the BOP that negatively affect its ability to operate institutions safely and securely”.
He echoed previous findings that some members of jail staff involved in guarding Epstein were overworked, and identified 13 employees with poor performance, recommending charges against six. Previously, only two workers tasked with guarding Epstein were charged, avoiding jail time in a plea deal after admitting to falsifying logs.
In a statement, the Bureau of Prisons said it accepted all eight of Horowitz’s recommendations, had updated its suicide watch process and would apply other lessons learned “to the broader BOP correctional landscape”.
“We make every effort to create a controlled environment within our facilities that is both secure and humane, prioritizing the physical and emotional wellbeing of those in our care and custody,” it said.
The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former partner, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022 for procuring teenage girls for him to abuse. She is currently at a low-security prison in Florida, while she pursues her long-shot appeal.