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What failures did the DOJ OIG identify at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2019?

Answer generated by a language model from retrieved DOJ document passages. Citations link to the original PDFs on justice.gov — always verify against the source. See the limitations page for known failure modes.

The DOJ OIG identified numerous failures at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in 2019, including:

  1. MCC New York staff failed to ensure that Epstein was assigned a cellmate as required by the Psychology Department EFTA00035824.
  2. MCC New York staff failed to undertake required measures to ensure Epstein and other inmates were accounted for and safe, including not conducting required 30-minute rounds and inmate counts EFTA00035824.
  3. MCC New York staff falsified BOP records relating to inmate counts and rounds, leaving Epstein unobserved for hours before his death EFTA00035824.
  4. The BOP’s failure to address the issue of functional security camera systems across the agency and at individual institutions, including MCC New York, which presents an ongoing risk to the safety of BOP staff and inmates EFTA00039025 EFTA01656708.

These failures contributed to an environment in which Epstein was able to take his own life, resulting in significant questions about the circumstances of his death and depriving his victims of their ability to seek justice through the criminal justice process.

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Background reading

DOJ Inspector General Reports

Two separate Department of Justice Office of Inspector General reports — one on the 2008 prosecutorial decisions, one on the 2019 conditions of confinement — produced detailed public findings about institutional failures.

Read the topic guide

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