The last days of Jeffrey Epstein | Society

On July 6, Jeffrey Epstein, a financial millionaire who shared his luxury life between a mansion on the Upper East Side, another in Palm Beach (Florida) and a private island in the Caribbean, became inmate 76318-054 South Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center. His new residence was a hole of six square meters, dark and damp, frequented by cockroaches and rodents, in a saturated prison that has housed some of the most famous terrorists and drug traffickers in the world, whose tremendous conditions have been denounced repeatedly by lawyers and humanitarian organizations

That day, on the way back from a trip to Paris, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested at the Teterboro airport in New Jersey. He was accused of sex trafficking and conspiracy, claiming that the financier and his employees paid dozens of underage girls, between 2002 and 2005, to have sex. Epstein pleaded not guilty. He faced up to 45 years in jail.

The high security prison, a mole of 12 rust-colored plants nestled between Chinatown and Tribeca, was opened in 1975 to house 500 inmates. But today there are almost eight hundred prisoners in there, waiting to be tried or sentenced in New York. Epstein ended up in Unit 9 South, on the ninth floor.

This is the Special Housing Unit, the second most rigorous, behind the dreaded unit 10 where, for example, El Chapo Guzmán was housed, after two sounded leaks from Mexican prisons. The cells are normally occupied by two prisoners each. He escorts them to the shower, handcuffed, three times a week. Epstein shared a cell with Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer accused of murder and cocaine trafficking.

Accustomed to shaping his environment at the heel of a booklet, Epstein paid several lawyers to visit him, the only way that allowed him to escape the agonizing routine for long periods of time, which could last up to 12 hours. He looked with them in a meeting room, and spent long moments in silence, sitting in a plastic chair, or devouring the products of the two machines of vending. Also according to The New York Times, transferred money destined to other prisoners to bank accounts, usual practice to avoid attacks. But he soon understood that not all the gold in the world could make his life there less miserable.

Epstein's lawyers requested that he be allowed to deposit a large bond in exchange for transferring him, while awaiting trial, to his manor in Manhattan, where he would be subject to constant surveillance that the defendant would pay for. On July 18, the judge denied the request, which he described as "hopelessly inadequate", given the possibility of recidivism and the risk of escape due to his high assets.

Five days later, prison guards found Epstein lying half unconscious on the floor, in a fetal position, with marks on his neck. Officials investigated the incident as a possible suicide, but did not rule out the possibility that he had been attacked by another inmate. They even interrogated Tartaglione, his cellmate, who was the one who gave the alarm.

Epstein's lesions were not serious. But it was decided to apply the suicide prevention protocol to the inmate. Epstein remained six days under this severe surveillance regime in a special cell. Then, at the request of his lawyers, who came to claim that his neck injuries had been caused by an attack by Tartaglione, Epstein was transferred back to 9 South. There he spent his last 12 days of life, with a reinforced supervision that included reviews every half hour and the presence of a cellmate. He had it the first few days, but this was soon moved and Epstein was left alone.

Three days after returning to 9 South, Epstein was visited by a lawyer, David Schoen, who the defendant wanted to join his defense team. They were together for five hours. "One thing I can assure you is that when I left it, I was very, very lively," Schoen told The New York Times

But in the following days, Epstein began to show lower spirits. He did not communicate with third parties, he cleaned himself less, he did not comb his hair, his beard was neglected and he began to sleep on the floor, according to lawyers and prison officials in the Times.

On Friday, August 9, his lawyers arrived early. They sat with him in the meeting room, for hours, to explain that new judicial documents had been made public that offered scabrous details about his accusations. There is no record of what happened in his cell when night fell. There are video surveillance cameras in the halls, but not in the cells, since federal law restricts their use in places where prisoners may be naked.

Only 17 officials covered the night shift in the prison, two of them assigned to unit 9 South. The guards had to make visits to Epstein every half hour. But, at least between 3.30 and 6.30, they didn't watch him. The two officials, the subsequent investigation revealed, fell asleep and, to cover up their mistake, falsified the record they were required to keep.

They had been working more hours than the regulations, something common in this and other federal penitentiaries, drowned in financing as a result of the reduction of public spending by the Trump Administration. One of the officials who guarded Epstein did not work watching inmates, but had offered to do so to get a bonus. The other, a woman who was assigned to that unit, was working overtime.

At 6.30 on Saturday, August 10, when they made their round, officials found Epstein with a sheet attached to his neck, hanging from the bunk. The inmates heard screams. "Breathe, Epstein, breathe!" He had resuscitation maneuvers and was transferred to a nearby hospital, where his death was certified.

On Sunday the autopsy was carried out. The forensic chief of the city, Barbara Sampson, said she needed more information before reaching a definitive conclusion, which is common in these cases. Epstein had the hyoid broken. The fracture of this bone usually indicates death by strangulation, but in men, especially at an advanced age, it may be compatible with hanging. On Friday afternoon the results of the autopsy were known: Epstein had committed suicide by hanging himself with a sheet.

The FBI and the Department of Justice have opened investigations to clarify the “serious irregularities” that, in the words of the attorney general, William Barr, occurred in the custody of one of the highest profile prisoners in the country. The lawyers of the deceased have assured that they will carry out their own investigation. "No one should die in jail," they said in a statement.