The Justice Department admitted to Congress Friday that accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was allowed off suicide watch after the psychologist who evaluated him in prison decided the extra supervision was no longer needed.
“With regard to Mr. Epstein, the Department can confirm that Mr. Epstein was placed on suicide watch in July,” the Justice Department wrote on Friday. “Mr. Epstein was later removed from suicide watch after being evaluated by a doctoral-level psychologist who determined that a suicide watch was no longer warranted.”
Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center early in the morning of Aug. 10, and he was declared dead at a local NYC hospital. After an autopsy and a forensic investigation, chief medical examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson said that Epstein’s death was caused by hanging and its manner was a suicide.
Epstein had previously been found in his prison cell with marks on his neck in what was apparently a suicide attempt on July 23, but he was let off suicide watch shortly before successfully taking his own life two weeks later.
DOJ said the Bureau of Prisons policy is that all inmates are interviewed within 24 hours of arriving at prison and receive an “intake evaluation,” which includes a determination of their “risk for self-harm.”
“If suicide risk is determined to be present, an immediate referral is made to Psychology Services and the inmate is placed under constant observation until a psychologist sees the inmate,” DOJ wrote.
The DOJ also said “any” prison staff member can place an inmate on suicide watch “at any given time.”
The DOJ wrote that “suicide watch is typically a short-term and highly restrictive intervention measure” and that it includes “special cells” and the ability to “maintain a safe environment” for the prisoner “without compromising the ability to observe and protect” them. Some of the safety measures during suicide watch include “easy access to the room,” “unobstructed vision of the inmate at all times,
” and the limited availability of objects that could “allow for easy self-harm.”
Most of those measures are no longer in place once a prisoner leaves suicide watch.
Today’s three-page letter, sent to the top Democrat and Republican on the House Judiciary Committee and signed by Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd and the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs Chief of Staff Mary Blanche Hankey, also revealed that the department was providing Congress with a compact disc containing five files consisting of 125 pages of material related to the Justice Department’s investigation into the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death.
The contents of the CD were not immediately clear.
The FBI and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz are both conducting outside reviews at the prison, and the Bureau of Prisons is also conducting an “After Action Review” and a “Suicide Reconstruction Review” as well. The Justice Department said it was “significantly limited in the amount of information we can release at this time” because of those four inquiries.
The DOJ also emphasized that, despite Epstein’s death, “the investigation into the conduct charged in the indictment previously filed against Mr. Epstein — which included a conspiracy count — remains ongoing.”
Epstein, the already convicted sex offender and financier, allegedly sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, among other locations, between 2002 and 2005, and perhaps beyond. Prosecutors said Epstein enticed and recruited minor girls to engage in sex acts with him and built a “vast network of underage victims.”
