The Bureau of Prisons’ Inspector General recently released a report on the negligence and failures that enabled disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to take his own life.
According to the 114-page report released on Tuesday, the problems within the Manhattan jail that held Epstein on charges of sex trafficking and abuse jeopardized the safety of high-risk inmates. Inspector General Michael Horowitz blamed jail officials for continued “negligence, misconduct, and outright job performance failures” concerning Epstein’s incarceration and subsequent death.
“The BOP’s failures are troubling not only because the BOP did not adequately safeguard an individual in its custody, but also because they led to questions about the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death and effectively deprived Epstein’s numerous victims of the opportunity to seek justice through the criminal justice system,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a statement upon the release of the report.
Epstein was found in his cell on August 10, 2019, one month after his arrest. According to the report, when officers found Epstein unresponsive in his cell, Officer Michael Thomas, who was charged criminally in the case, reportedly shouted, “Breathe, Epstein, Breathe,” later adding, “We’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” when he noticed Epstein hanging from the bed.
Epstein died by suicide at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center.
According to the report, when Epstein’s room was inspected following his death, detectives found extra bed sheets, a different mattress, and an orange noose made from of a “shirt or sheet.”
At 8 pm on August 10, before his death, Horowitz said Epstein was in his cell when he made an unrecorded call on a landline not monitored by prison security.
In the report, Epstein told the officers he was calling his mother, who had already passed away.
Epstein wasn’t tracked or checked on after 10:40 pm until police found him hanging from his cell, the report stated.
During Epstein’s first attempt to commit suicide on July 23, 2019, Bureau of Prisons staff members should have been alert, based on the Inspector General’s findings.
The Inspector General claimed that on July 30, an email advising that Epstein would be sharing a cell with another inmate was sent to 70 members of the prison physiological unit. The Inspector General, however, said that no one in the Bureau of Prisons took notice of that warning, as he highlighted problems with surveillance cameras as an additional factor in Epstein’s death.
Earlier this month, reporters obtained nearly 4,000 pages of documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the records, Epstein repeatedly called himself a coward while sitting alone in his cell near the end of his life.
Both Thomas and his partner pleaded guilty to doctoring log books so that they would appear to have completed their rounds.
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