Four years after Jeffrey Epstein’s death, DOJ’s Inspector General says mismanagement led to suicide

The four years since notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in summer 2019 certainly have been quite eventful, though I fear not all that much has changed when it comes to federal jail and prison conditions.  Thus, I suspect there are still lessons to learn from this big new report released today by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General titled “Investigation and Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Custody, Care, and Supervision of Jeffrey Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, New York.”  This New York Times article about the report starts this way:

Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in a cell with a bedsheet tied around his neck in 2019, died by suicide, not foul play — following a cascade of negligence and mismanagement at the now-shuttered federal jail in Manhattan where he was housed, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general.

The inspector general, who released a report on Tuesday after a yearslong investigation, found that the leadership and staff members at the jail, the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center, created an environment in which Mr. Epstein, a financier charged with sex trafficking, had every opportunity to kill himself.

The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, referred two supervisors at the facility responsible for ensuring Mr. Epstein’s safety for criminal prosecution by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York after they were caught falsifying records and lying to investigators. But prosecutors declined to bring charges.

While the inspector general concluded the jail’s staff members “engaged in significant misconduct and dereliction of their duties,” investigators — who combed through 100,000 records and conducted dozens of interviews — “did not uncover evidence” that contradicted the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s finding that Mr. Epstein had died by his own hand, with a homemade noose.

Here is how the 128-page report’s executive summary gets started:

According to its website, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)’s current mission statement is “Corrections professionals who foster a humane and secure environment and ensure public safety by preparing individuals for successful reentry into our communities.” However, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has repeatedly identified long-standing operational challenges that negatively affect the BOP’s ability to operate its institutions safely and securely. Many of those same operational challenges, including staffing shortages, managing inmates at risk for suicide, functional security camera systems, and management failures and widespread disregard of BOP policies and procedures, were again identified by the OIG during this investigation and review into the custody, care, and supervision of one of the BOP’s most notorious inmates, Jeffrey Epstein.

The OIG initiated this investigation upon receipt of information from the BOP that on August 10, 2019, in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, New York (MCC New York), Epstein was found hanged in his assigned cell within the Special Housing Unit (SHU). The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, City of New York, determined that Epstein had died by suicide.

The OIG conducted this investigation jointly with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the OIG’s investigative focus being the conduct of BOP personnel. Among other things, the FBI investigated the cause of Epstein’s death and determined there was no criminality pertaining to how Epstein had died.

This report concerns the OIG’s findings regarding MCC New York personnel’s custody, care, and supervision of Epstein while detained at the facility from his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019, until his death on August 10.