By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department’s watchdog concluded that negligence, misconduct, and faulty resources contributed to the suicide of Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy financier who was jailed on child-sex trafficking charges.
In a scathing report, the Office of Inspector General pointed to problems at the Federal Bureau of Prisons and New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Facility, where Epstein killed himself in a jail cell in August 2019.
According to the report, prison staff left Epstein alone in his jail cell with an excessive amount of bed linens. Most of the surveillance cameras in his cell didn’t work, and one worker was on duty for 24 hours straight.
“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,” the report states.
Investigators also found “longstanding deficiencies” with the security system at the jail. As a result, nearly all of the cameras in and around Epstein’s cell were not recording video.
Two guards were previously charged with falsifying records to conceal their failure to adequately monitor Epstein. Although they were supposed to check on him every 30 minutes, they failed to do so during an eight-hour period.
