The July 6, Jeffrey Epstein, a millionaire financier who gave out his life of luxury among a mansion on the Upper East Side, another in Palm Beach (Florida) and a private island in the Caribbean, became the inmate 76318-054 of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in southern Manhattan. His new residence was a hole of six square meters, dark and damp, frequented by roaches and rodents, in a prison saturated that has hosted some of the most famous terrorists and drug traffickers in the world, whose tremendous conditions have been denounced repeatedly by lawyers and humanitarian organizations.
on That day, on the back of a trip to Paris, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested at the airport in Teterboro, in New Jersey. He was accused of sex trafficking and conspiracy, alleging that the financial and their employees paid to dozens of girls under the age of age, between the years 2002 and 2005, to maintain sexual relations. Epstein pleaded not guilty. He faced up to 45 years in prison.
The high-security prison, a mass of 12 floors rust colored, nestled between Chinatown and Tribeca, was opened in 1975 to house 500 inmates. But in today’s crowded in there nearly eight hundred prisoners, waiting to be tried or sentenced in New York. Epstein ended up in unit 9 South, on the ninth floor.
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autopsy confirms death by suicide of Jeffrey Epstein The billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, accused for sexual exploitation of children, found dead in his cell
this Is the Special Housing Unit, the second more rigorous, behind the feared unit 10 where, for example, was hosted Chapo Guzman, after two high-profile leak of prisons mexican. The cells are occupied normally by two prisoners each. Is the escort to the shower, handcuffed, three times a week. Epstein shared a cell with Nicholas Tartaglione, a exagente accused police of murder and cocaine trafficking.
Accustomed to shape his environment to hit book, Epstein paid several lawyers to go to visit him, the only avenue that allowed him to escape from the anxious routine for long periods of time, which could last up to 12 hours. Looked with them in a meeting room, and spent long periods in silence, sitting in a plastic chair, or devouring the products of the two vending machines. Also, according to The New York Times, transferred to bank accounts, money allocated for other prisoners, the usual practice to avoid attacks. But she soon understood that not all the gold in the world could make your life less miserable.
The attorneys of Epstein requested that he be allowed to deposit a substantial bond to change to move it, while waiting for the trial, to his mansion in Manhattan, where it would be subjected to a constant surveillance that costearía the defendant himself. On the 18th of July, the judge denied the request, calling it “hopelessly inadequate”, given the possibility of recidivism and the risk of leakage due to its high heritage.
Five days later, prison guards found to Epstein lying half-unconscious on the floor, in the fetal position, with marks on the neck. The officials investigated the incident as a possible suicide, but didn’t rule out the possibility that it had been attacked by another inmate. Even questioned Tartaglione, his cell mate, who was the one who gave the voice of alarm.
injuries of Epstein there were gravity. But it was decided to apply to the inmate the protocol for the prevention of suicides. Epstein remained six days under a severe regime of surveillance in a special cell. Later, at the request of their lawyers, they came to argue that your injuries in the neck had been caused by an attack of Tartaglione, Epstein was moved back to the 9 South. There he spent his last 12 days of life, with enhanced surveillance, which included revisions every half an hour and the presence of a cell mate. What was the first few days, but this was soon moved and Epstein is left alone.
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, in lower Manhattan, where he died on Epstein. DON EMMERT AFP
Three days after returning to the 9 s, Epstein received the visit of a lawyer, David Schoen, that the defendant wanted to join his defense team. We spent five hours together. “One thing I can assure you is that when I left, I was very, very encouraged,” said Schoen to The New York Times.
But in the following days, Epstein began to be more low mood. Did not communicate with third parties, aseaba least, not combing, was neglected beard, and began to sleep on the floor, as has been stated, lawyers and prison officials at Times.
on Friday, 9 August, his lawyers arrived early. They sat with him in the meeting room, for hours, to explain that they had just made public, new court documents that provided gory details about his accusations. There is No record of what happened in your cell when the night fell. There are surveillance cameras in the hallways, but not in the cells, because the federal law restricts the use of the same in places where prisoners can be naked.
Only 17 staff covering the night shift at the prison, two of them assigned to the unit on 9 South. The guards had to make visits to Epstein every half hour. But, at least between 3.30 and 6.30, not watched. The two officials, as revealed on the subsequent investigation, they fell asleep and, to cover up her mistake, falsified the record that they were forced to lead.
they Had spent more hours working than the regulations, something common in this and other federal penitentiaries, drowned out of funding as a result of the reduction of public spending of the Administration Trump. One of the officials that guarded Epstein did not work guarding prisoners, but they had offered to do so to get a bonus. The other, a woman that was assigned in that unit, I was working overtime.
At 6: 30 Saturday 10 August, when they made their round, the officers found Epstein with a bed sheet tied to the neck, hanging from the bunk bed. The inmates heard screams. “I breathe, Epstein, breathe!”. He had resuscitation and was transferred to a nearby hospital, where they certified his death.
on Sunday carried out the autopsy. The forensic head of the city, Barbara Sampson, declared that he needed more information before reaching a definitive conclusion, something common in these cases. Epstein had broken the hyoid. The fracture of the bone usually indicates death by strangulation, but in males, especially at an advanced age, can be compatible with the hanging. Friday afternoon is the release of the results of the autopsy: Epstein had committed suicide ahorcándose with a sheet.
The FBI and the Justice Department have opened investigations to clarify the “serious irregularities” which, in the words of attorney-general, William Barr, were in the custody of one of the prisoners of the more high profile of the country. The lawyers of the deceased have been assured that they will carry out their own research. “No one should die in prison,” they stated in a press release.
suicide Risk
The protocol for the prevention of suicides, which was applied for six days to Epstein after an incident on July 23, includes the transfer of the inmate to a special cell of observation, surrounded by windows, with a bed bolted to the floor and without sheets or blankets. All federal prisons should have at least one of these cells, which provide “an unobstructed view” of the inmate, and must not have “architectural features which may allow self-harm”.
The light is on 24 hours a day and staff members, in shifts, sit in an adjacent room and constantly monitor the prisoner, keeping a written record of your behavior. It gives them food they can eat with the fingers, without cutlery. Are in the cell up to 23 hours a day, often without being able to take a shower.
The regime of surveillance by suicide is intended for short periods of time, by the stress generated in the subject and the officers. Is the coordinator of the program, usually the psychologist, the head of the prison who determines that there is no longer “imminent risk of suicide”, after conducting a psychological evaluation face-to-face with the offender.The risk of suicide is so high in the federal prisons that the guards have access to a wooden pole with a blade on one end for quickly cutting the sheet if you are an inmate hung. It is not public the data of how many people have committed suicide in the correctional facility in Manhattan, but the figures of the Bureau of Prisons show that at least 124 people killed themselves in prisons federal between 2010 and 2016.
