A “combination of negligence and misconduct” within the Bureau of Prisons allowed Jeffrey Epstein to commit suicide inside a New York City federal jail in August 2019, according to a Department of Justice Inspector General report released Tuesday.
Headed by DOJ IG Michael Horowitz, the probe found that “several staff falsified BOP records,” “lacked candor during” subsequent interviews, and exhibited a categorical failure to enforce “required measures.” The report includes several examples of prison staff violating department policy, including by failing to perform “inmate counts,” failing to conduct “30-minute rounds,” and failing to “search inmate cells, and ensuring adequate supervision of the SHU and the functionality of the video camera surveillance system.”
“The combination of these and other failures led to Epstein being unmonitored and alone in his cell, which contained an excessive amount of bed linens, from approximately 10:40 p.m. on August 9 until he was discovered hanged in his locked cell the following day,” the report states.
The Inspector General harshly denounced the Bureau of Prisons in the report’s conclusion section, laying Epstein’s death at the agency’s feet.
“The combination of negligence, misconduct, and outright job performance failures documented in this report all contributed to an environment in which arguably one of the BOP's most notorious inmates was provided with the opportunity to take his own life,” the report concludes.
Equally damning, the report added, were the “significant questions being asked about the circumstances of his death,” due to the utter mismanagement of Epstein.
The news comes on the heels of another report issued by Horowitz in December 2022, which found similar oversights by the Bureau of Prisons contributed to the death of notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in 2018.
“Similar to the Bulger report, the numerous and serious transgressions that occurred in this matter came to light largely because they involved a high-profile inmate. The fact that serious deficiencies occurred in connection with high-profile inmates like Epstein and Bulger is especially concerning given that the BOP would presumably take particular care in handling the custody and care of such inmates,” the report states.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press obtained over 4,000 pages of documentation pertaining to Epstein’s death following a Freedom of Information request. The trove revealed a devastating portrait of how the BOP operated.
One prosecutor involved in the Epstein case complained that his legal representatives lacked crucial information hours after the suicide, writing that it was "frankly unbelievable" that the agency released a notice to the press "before telling us basic information so that we can relay it to his attorneys who can relay it to his family."
The report recommended charges be placed against six employees of the jail, with thirteen – overall – cited for poor performance.
Prison guards Nova Noel and Michael Thomas, the two employees accused of falsifying records, avoided prison sentences under a plea deal. The report found that the two were both asleep for at least two hours during their night shift. Moreover, neither conducted any search of the Special Housing Unit (SHU) in which Epstein was then held.
Later analysis found that “Noel used the computer periodically throughout the night, including to search the Internet for furniture sales and benefit websites and to read a news article about Epstein. Thomas used the computer briefly around 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. to search for motorcycle sales and sports news.”
Security camera footage showed no one visited Epstein’s “tier” of the SHU between 10:40 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. when breakfast was finally served.
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