Prison wardens across the country are voicing their outrage at Jeffrey Epstein’s death behind bars, many saying the pedophile billionaire should have been under 24/7 suicide watch surveillance.
Epstein, who is accused of sexual abusing and trafficking dozens of underage girls, was found dead, hanging in his cell at the notorious Metropolitan Correction Center in New York before 7am on Saturday.
The 66-year-old was not under 24/7 surveillance at the prison and had been taken off off suicide watch, despite his first suspected suicide attempt on July 23 where he was found semi-conscious on the floor of his cell with marks on his neck.
It was later revealed that the short-staffed prison failed to check in on him every 30 minutes the night of his death.
‘Under the circumstances, I would have a staff member sitting there or have a camera on him 24/7 while he was in my custody, purely to cover my butt,’ Bob Hood, a former warden at the ADX Florence ‘supermax’ prison in Colorado said to NBC.
‘I know that sounds tacky, but this is not your average inmate,’ Hood, who also formerly worked as the federal Bureau of Prisons chief of internal affairs, said.
Former warden at the ADX Florence ‘supermax’ prison in Colorado Bob Hood (left) says Jeffrey Epstein (right) should have been under 24/7 surveillance because he ‘is not your average inmate’
He was held at the notoriously harsh Metropolitan Correction Center in New York in the Special Housing Unit, which is known to have higher incidents of suicide
Epstein’s body is seen being carried from a side door of New York Presbyterian-Lower Manhattan hospital and being put in a Office of Chief Medical Examiner vehicle just before 1pm Saturday
Prison wardens across the country are voicing their outrage at Epstein’s death
Epstein’s surveillance – or lack thereof – has baffled prison wardens across the country.
‘For them to pull him off suicide watch is shocking,’ Cameron Lindsay, a former warden who worked at three federal facilities including the nearby Metropolitan Detention Center in New York said.
‘For someone this high-profile, with these allegations and this many victims, who has had a suicide attempt in the last few weeks, you can take absolutely no chances. You leave him on suicide watch until he’s out of there,’ he added.
Lindsay said following the suicide scare, Epstein should have been required to move to a bare-bones cell and given a tear-resistant one-piece smock to avoid another attempt on his life. He should have received bolstered observation from a staffer or an inmate posted outside, Lindsay and sources familiar with Epstein’s case said.
Epstein was placed in the MCC’s Special Housing Unit, instead of general population, for his own safety. Incidents of suicide are noted to be higher in SHU than general population.
It’s not clear why Epstein’s status changed from suicide watch sometime over the past two weeks. To alter his suicide watch status would have required authorization from the jail’s suicide prevention program coordinator and the jail warden.
‘Once an inmate has been placed on watch, the watch may not be terminated, under any circumstance, without the program coordinator or designee performing a face-to-face evaluation,’ according to the the federal Bureau of Prison official guidelines issued in 2007.
Former Metropolitan Detention Center warden Cameron Lindsay says Epstein should have never been pulled off suicide watch after he was found semi-conscious on the floor of his cell on July 23 with marks on his neck
The night of his death Sunday evening, Epstein was reportedly left alone in his cell for hours without being checked on, despite prison guard rules to check in on him every 30 minutes. Epstein pictured above with his longtime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell
Former federal Bureau of Prisons case manager Jack Donson says that suicide watch ‘usually only lasts a few days to a week’ because the constant surveillance requires manpower.
‘It requires staff to do overtime shifts’ and is ‘not considered a good use of resources’.
He added that incidents of suicide are higher in SHU because ‘you’re isolated with your own thoughts and it’s not as monitored and supervised.’
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein tweeted, ‘Detained pedophiles require special attention. Stopping people from harming themselves is difficult.’
The night of his death Sunday evening, Epstein was reportedly left alone in his cell for hours without being checked on, despite prison guard rules to check in on him every 30 minutes.
Furthermore, the 66-year-old should have had a cellmate, but the inmate scheduled to move in with him was mysteriously transferred just a few hours before he killed himself, a source said.
The federal prison union head in New York has complained about staffing shortages at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
‘For someone this high-profile, with these allegations and this many victims, who has had a suicide attempt in the last few weeks, you can take absolutely no chances. You leave him on suicide watch until he’s out of there,’ former jail warden Cameron Lindsay said
The FBI announced a probe into his death and the Bureau of Prisons announced they will also launch an internal ‘after-action’ investigation.
‘It’s too early to say what I think should happen, but if this did occur as we believe that it did, some staff are going to have some hard questions to answer, I’m afraid,’ Lindsay said.
Attorney General William Barr said that Epstein’s death ‘raises serious questions that must be answered.’
‘It simply does not make common sense that Jeffrey Epstein was not on suicide watch,’ Jack Scarola, a lawyer who represents seven of Epstein’s alleged victims, said to NBC.
‘And it does not make common sense that if he was on suicide watch he could have successfully taken his own life unless he had some outside help.’
Epstein was detained at the Metropolitan Correction Center since July 6 on charges of trafficking and sexual abusing underage girls.
His lawyers had requested he be allowed to await trial under house arrest at his sprawling $77million Manhattan mansion, but that request was denied.
The MCC houses 763 inmates and is known as one of the most rigid and harsh prisons in the country.
Epstein was visited by lawyers every day and allowed to leave his cell and spend a majority of his day in a room designated for attorney meetings.
His death marks the second for the Bureau of Prisons in less than a year after Boston mob boss James ‘Whitey’ Bulger was beaten to death last October hours after he was transferred to the general population unit of a West Virginia penitentiary.
There’s reportedly no video of the moment he died in his jail cell as cameras at the MCC film the doors to each cell to show anyone entering or exiting, but they do not point inside.