The Epstein didn’t kill himself float. Cc: @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/1t7EUEoZUf
— Paul Blair (@gopaulblair) February 22, 2020
By Michael Balsamo and Michael R. Sisak, AP
The federal jail in New York City where wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein took his own life is on lockdown as authorities try to determine whether someone smuggled a gun inside one of the most secure federal jails in the country, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Officials have not yet determined whether a weapon was actually brought into the Metropolitan Correctional Center but placed the jail on lockdown as the investigation continues, the people said. The people were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The facility is on “modified operations due to an ongoing investigation,” the federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. Officials are restricting the movement of inmates and making changes to programs while authorities investigate. They have also canceled all visits at the Manhattan jail, which houses more than 700 inmates, including from attorneys.
The lockdown comes just days after Attorney General William Barr named a new director of the federal prison system.
“When any given facility is on modified operations, they remain so until an incident can be thoroughly investigated to ensure the safety of staff and inmates,” the agency said in a statement. The agency places jails on modified operations for several reasons, including “inmate altercations or intelligence indicating potential safety threats,” the statement said.
All visitors and inmates are searched before entering the facility and go through metal detectors, leaving personal belongings outside of the jail. All mail is also screened by correctional staff. A gun smuggled inside the jail would be a major breach of security protocols.
The jail currently houses a number of high-profile inmates, including attorney Michael Avenatti, who gained fame by representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits involving President Donald Trump and was convicted of trying to extort sportswear giant Nike. It has also housed Mexican drug kingpin and escape artist Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman who was sentenced to life behind bars after a trial in New York.
The Bureau of Prisons, which has been plagued for years by violence, misconduct and a chronic staffing shortage, has been in the spotlight since Epstein killed himself in August while awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused girls as young as 14 and young women in New York and Florida in the early 2000s.
His death highlighted a highlighted a series of safety lapses at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York and Attorney General William Barr told the AP that a “perfect storm of screw ups” led to Epstein’s ability to take his own life while in federal custody. The cell where he died was in a high-security unit, famous for having held terrorists and drug cartel kingpins. Epstein’s death revealed the jail was suffering from problems including chronic staffing shortages that lead to mandatory overtime for guards day after day and other staff being pressed into service as correctional officers.
The inspector general is investigating, and the Justice Department is still looking into the circumstances that led to Epstein’s death, including why he wasn’t given a cellmate. Two correctional officers responsible for watching Epstein have pleaded not guilty to charges alleging they lied on prison records to conceal they were sleeping and browsing the internet during the hours they were supposed to be checking on Epstein, as required, before his death.
The warden in charge of the jail when Epstein took his own life was ordered reassigned to a desk post at the Bureau of Prisons’ regional office in Pennsylvania after Epstein’s death, but in January the Bureau of Prisons planned to move him into a leadership position at another federal correctional facility, putting him back in the field with inmates despite an ongoing investigation. That planned transfer was put on hold after the AP reported it, in part because the investigations haven’t been completed.
A larger gun-free-zone sign would’ve prevented this.
New York City limits was not big enough?
I don’t understand how anybody can look at this sort of thing (that the government can’t even keep guns out of high security prisons) and still believe any gun law stops any law-breaker.
^^THIS^^
^^A thousand times THIS^^
And not to nitpick, but you would think the AP reporters by now would know the difference between a “jail” and “prison.” When their first line begins with, “ The federal jail in New York City…”
“Jail Where Jeffrey Epstein ‘Killed Himself’…”
What do Christmas lights and Jeffrey Epstein have in common?
Neither are capable of hanging themselves.
*Rimshot*
(Actually, I do think he hung his own sorry ass, and I thank him for saving the taxpayers a nice chunk of change in the process…)
Well this is your lucky day then. My cousin doing life in a state pen just up and died yesterday in a barbers chair. Autopsie showed no signs of any organ damage or foul play. ( well that’s their story and I’m sure they will stick to it,)
Condolences your way, marsupial one.
Been a steady stream of my senior family members dropping dead recently on my end…
Darn near everyone has a cousin in the Pokey it seems anymore. I’ve got a 2nd cousin sitting in a Fed Facility too.
He wasn’t making enough distilling corn squeezing’, and decided to branch off into cocaine. Sure enough, he got caught, and the high number of pounds they caught him with gave him a life sentence. Condolences to you and your family.
“A gun smuggled inside the jail would be a major breach of security protocols”
… when you really need to up the word count.
These days prisoners are able to get cellphones into prisons.
I saw a video recorded inside a prison, by a prisoner, of the aftermath of a mass stabbing. The prisoner used his cellphone to post the video onto social media.
Who ever thought prisoners would be recording and posting on social media their prison life? Drugs and weapons in prison? Sure.
Is Epstein even really dead? Sheep fodder.
He’s still alive and hanging out with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Napoleon Bonaparte.
The clown show has been continued for another season.
I wonder if that there’s the gun he hanged himself with!
There’s NO WAY IN HECK this filthy rich mfer killed himself…. YOU’RE A FOOL IF YOU BELIEVE OTHERWISE….
Rich people don’t kill themselves, they pay their way out of everything, which is exactly what happened in this case
I worked in prisons and special high security units for the insane as well. Trust me.. Anything can happen anytime anywhere. Or me, it’s been one of the most challenging, rewarding, discouraging and politacally controlled environments, next to D.C. itself. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, because of what I learned and the awareness that comes with it. Idk why they put out a sloppy story without any solid information. It doesn’t make sense off the cuff. I think something else is going on, because you dont need a gun in prison to “off” someone.
The only thing that makes any sense to me is that possibly a high profile inmate bribed someone to bring them in a gun for protection. Which is stupid, because unless you’ve got a derringer up your rectum? Its gonna extremely difficult to hide a gun. We used to do x Ray’s on inmates suspected of carrying a weapon or any internal contraband. This isnt 150 year old facility built by the inmates in the 1800’s while being supervised by guards on horseback with double barrels and lever action rifles with hundreds of pocket holes for contraband due to its construction. Glad this is being followed, even if by illiterate journalists.
We need to start killing more Criminals, so we can save money and reduce crime. These Liberals need to move to Cuba or Iran. The Jails are to much fun for the Inmates, FREE TV, FREE Meals, FREE Education, FREE Rec., Free Everything, enough is enough. We need Corporal Punishment. Vote Trump 2020 and Republican Forever. Also Gun Control, only gets the Guns away from the Law Abiding People. You people that think the Laws will keep a Gun out of the Criminals Hands are IDIOTS
Epstein didnt kill himself
That’s right. Entire forests in Arkansas have been cut down by the notches in Shrillary’s trees… would have been too incriminating to put them anywhere else.
Why do so many friends and enemies of the Clintons commit Arkanside?
Christmas lights are hung. People are hanged…unless they are on that same tree.
Well, that was a bit of a buzz-kill, miss Victoria… 😉
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Shame on me.
I’ve never been to a federal jail, the food must be worse then county. .
You’ve never stayed in county or you’d know better than that comment
Possum is a liberal shill who tries to fit in by making himself sound like a hillbilly. Because in a liberals eyes, all us gun owning red necks must be slack jawed Retarded hill Billys. The more comments of his you read it’ll become quite clear.
Craig Livingstone killed Jeffrey Epstein on the orders of Hillary. When Mrs. Clinton wins the election in November she will order Livingstone to assassinate her predecessor, so that she can be inaugurated immediately. Finally, she’ll have Livingstone bury the tip of an ice ax deep into the skull of her comrade Bernie Sanders, simply because her hero, Joe Stalin, had that done to Leon Trotsky in 1940.