Jail draws new scrutiny in Epstein suicide
NEWYORK » The apparent suicide of Jeffrey Epstein has brought new scrutiny to a federal jail in New York that, despite chronic understaffing, houses some of the highest-security inmates in the country.
Epstein’s death is also the latest black eye for the U. S. Bureau of Prisons, the jail’s parent agency that already was under fire for the October death of Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, who was fatally beaten at a federal prison in West Virginia shortly after his arrival.
Taken together, the deaths underscore “serious issues surrounding a lack of leadership” within the BOP, said Cameron Lindsay, a former warden who ran three federal lockups, including the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
A defense attorney for Epstein, Marc Fernich, also faulted jail officials, saying they “recklessly put Mr. Epstein in harm’s way” and failed to protect him.
The Bureau of Prisons did not respond to repeated requests for details about Epstein’s death. But Attorney General William Barr demanded answers, saying he was appalled by the apparent suicide and announcing a pair of federal inquiries by the FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general.
Attorney General William Barr said Monday the Justice Department has already found “serious irregularities” at the Manhattan jail where Epstein was being held, adding that the facility “failed to adequately secure this prisoner.”
Barr also issued a stern warning, saying the case was far from over and that anyone who may have conspired with Epstein “should not rest easy.”
Epstein, 66, had pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. His lawyers maintained the charges against him violated a non-prosecution agreement he signed over a decade ago.
Epstein’s death brings fresh attention to the staffing at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correc
tional Center, where shortages worsened by a partial government shutdown prompted inmates to stage a hunger strike in January after they were denied family and lawyer visits.
Eight months later, the lockup remains so shortstaffed that the BOP is offering correctional officers a $10,000 bonus to transfer there from other federal lockups. That’s on top of a so- called “recruitment incentive” that amounts to 10% of new guards’ firstyear salaries. Staffing shortfalls are resulting in extreme overtime shifts, in which guards may work up to 16 hours a day. A person familiar with the jail’s operations told The Associated Press that a guard in Epstein’s unit was working a fifth straight day of overtime and another guard was working man
datory overtime the day he was found.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he lacked authorization to publicly discuss jail operations.
Those conditions could make it more difficult for correctional officers to enforce the BOP’s strict measures for screening security risks. Those protocols acknowledge that inmates held in so- called special housing units, as Epstein was, “may be at a higher
risk for suicidal behavior.”
Those safeguards — including cell checks every 30 minutes — were not followed the night before Epstein’s death, The New York Times reported Sunday, citing a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
Epstein had been alone in his cell when he was found unresponsive Saturday, even though he only recently had returned to the Special Housing Unit from suicide watch, the
person familiar with the jail’s operations said. The jail had placed him on 24hour monitoring — with daily psychiatric evaluations — after he was found injured on the floor of his cell two weeks ago with neck bruises.
Catherine Linaweaver, who retired in 2014 after 16 months as the MCC’s warden, said some people were overreacting to Epstein’s suicide because he was well known. She noted the limitations jailers face
when someone decides to take his or her own life.
“If someone really wants to commit suicide,” Linaweaver said, “they’re going to do it.”
For more than a decade, the union that represents federal correctional officers has been warning of what it describes as “unsound” and “dangerous” staffing levels at prisons around the country. In general population units, there’s often just one officer to deal with more than 125 inmates.