Jail ‘negligence’ enabled Jeffrey Epstein to take his personal life, report finds

A mix of “negligence”, “misconduct” and “outright job performance failures” allowed intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein to take his personal life in jail, a brand new report has discovered.

One of the “most notorious inmates” in US custody was “provided with the opportunity to take his own life”, in keeping with the report from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.

The report doesn’t disagree with the official verdict, delivered not lengthy after Epstein died in August 2019, that his dying was the results of suicide by hanging.

It additionally concurs with the New York medical expert, noting there have been a scarcity of defensive wounds or medicine in his system, pointing to suicide.

The numerous failures recognized within the report embrace two members of jail workers failing to go looking Epstein’s cell and test on him each half-hour – after which mendacity about it.

Employees allowed Epstein to have further clothes in his cell and failed to ensure he had a cellmate as advisable, the report added.

On 23 July 2019, 18 days earlier than he died, officers discovered Epstein with an orange fabric round his neck, the report additionally says. His cellmate stated on the time he had been making an attempt to take his personal life.

The report goes on: “Medical staff examined Epstein, observed friction marks and superficial reddening around his neck and on his knee and placed him on suicide watch. Epstein was removed from suicide watch on 24 July but remained under psychological observation until 30 July.”

Epstein was not noticed for 4 hours earlier than his dying and had made a brand new will the day earlier than – one thing jail officers had been unaware of.

When Epstein’s cellmate was transferred on the morning on 9 August, no motion was taken, and Epstein was alone in his cell, the report says.

Those failures and others disadvantaged the financier’s “numerous victims, many of whom were underage girls at the time of the alleged crimes, of their ability to seek justice through the criminal justice process”, the report added.

The 66-year-old had been dealing with a 45-year sentence had he been convicted of a number of counts of sexually abusing underage women.

The 120-page report has discovered some stage of misconduct by 13 Bureau of Prisons staff, together with two who had been charged criminally and two others whose legal referrals had been declined by federal prosecutors.

The Bureau of Prisons stated in a written response, included within the report, that it concurred with all eight of the report’s suggestions and that the “troubling” conduct described was not consultant of the 35,000 staff who workers 120 federal correctional establishments.