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Senior Officer Specialist 1 told the OIG that after Epstein came off of suicide watch, Epstein asked if he could be paired up with Inmate 1 again. Senior Officer Specialist 1 told Epstein that his request was something he would need to raise with the Operations Lieutenant. Senior Officer Specialist 1 told the OIG that Epstein replied, “Yeah, but | don’t understand, you know, we were bunkies, everything was cool.” The Chief Psychologist also told the OIG that Epstein mentioned to her that he wanted Inmate 1 to continue to be his cellmate. V. The Psychology Department's Post-July 23 Determination that Epstein Needed to Have an Appropriate Cellmate Following the events of July 23, the MCC New York Psychology Department determined that Epstein needed to be housed with an appropriate cellmate. To ensure Epstein’s cellmate requirement was disseminated to MCC New York staff, on July 30, 2019, at 12:30 p.m., the Staff Psychologist sent an email to over 70 MCC New York staff members which read, “Inmate Epstein #76318-054 is being taken off Psych Observation and needs to be housed with an appropriate cellmate.” A review of the email recipients showed that the email was sent to, among others, the Warden, Associate Warden 2, the Captain, the SHU Lieutenant, the SIS Lieutenant, the Day Watch Operations Lieutenant, the Evening Watch Operations Lieutenant, the Morning Watch Operations Lieutenant, the Day Watch Activities Lieutenant, and CO 1. The Staff Psychologist also completed a “Post-Watch Report,” which stated that the “SHU L[ieutenant] informed inmate Epstein needs to be housed with an appropriate cellmate.” The Warden told the OIG that the Chief Psychologist had advised him that Epstein was not suicidal and was ready to return to the SHU. According to the Warden, when he spoke with the Chief Psychologist regarding Epstein, she told him to assign Epstein a cellmate. He added that MCC New York would typically house an inmate who was previously on suicide watch with a cellmate. The Warden stated there was no BOP policy mandating that an inmate coming off of suicide watch have a cellmate, but they usually housed such an inmate with a cellmate. During their interviews with the OIG, Associate Warden 1, the Captain, and the SHU Lieutenant each said they had verbally informed the SHU staff of Epstein’s cellmate requirement and were confident that all SHU staff members knew of Epstein’s cellmate requirement. Additionally, the Captain said he visited the SHU on multiple occasions and directed his staff to be alert and attentive about Epstein’s special needs. According to Associate Warden 1, the Captain was in charge of correctional services, including the SHU. Associate Warden 1 said the Captain should have told the SHU Lieutenant, and that the SHU Lieutenant should have told the SHU staff about the cellmate requirement. Associate Warden 1 further told the OIG that the SHU Lieutenant was responsible for ensuring that everything within the SHU was in compliance. Associate Warden 1 told the OIG that the SHU staff knew that Epstein was required to have a cellmate, and said she personally heard it being discussed on more than one occasion when she would visit the SHU while performing her rounds. The Captain, who supervised all of the Lieutenants and COs working in MCC New York, said that after the cellmate requirement was issued for Epstein, he spoke with the SHU Lieutenant and directed him to ensure that Epstein had a cellmate. Similar to the Warden, the SHU Lieutenant told the OIG that while there is no BOP policy addressing the necessity of assigning cell mates to individuals coming off of suicide watch, it was 32 DOJ-OGR-00023399