DOJ-OGR-00023445.jpg
Extracted Text (OCR)
The Day Watch SHU Officer in Charge told the OIG that in
Figure 5.6
August 2019, each inmate would have been authorized to
have two sheets and one blanket. He said that in the winter,
Photograph of Epstein’s Cell After inmates are allowed to have an additional blanket. When
His Death interviewed by the OIG, the Day Watch SHU Officer in Charge
reviewed a picture of Epstein’s cell from August 10, 2019,
after Epstein had been removed from the cell. The Day
Watch SHU Officer in Charge said there appeared to be an
excess number of linens and blankets in the cell, which he
believed were for both Epstein and Inmate 3, and that there
were possibly a couple of extra sheets as well. He noted that
there were two mattresses in the cell and deduced that
Inmate 3’s assigned items had not yet been removed even
though he had departed MCC New York earlier that day.
According to the Day Watch SHU Officer in Charge,
Inmate 3's items should have been removed as soon as the
SHU staff knew Inmate 3 was not returning. He told the OIG
that any extra linens or blankets should be removed when
the inmates take showers and their cells are searched. He
told the OIG that he believed the purpose of limiting the
linens provided to the inmates was to ensure there was
enough to go around and that it was more of an
administrative matter rather than a security matter.
S5=n5.
aees
The Captain also reviewed the picture of Epstein’s cell from
August 10, 2019, when interviewed by the OIG. He said
Epstein had too many linens, t-shirts, and blankets in his cell.
The Captain said the SHU staff were responsible for
removing those items because they did not want to hear the
other inmates complain that they were not issued the same
number of items. The Captain stated that it is also a security
issue because it “gives the inmates the materials to be able to make homemade fashioned and improvised
nooses” or “use it as escape paraphernalia,” such as a rope that inmates had used to escape from another
facility in Chicago.
Source: Office of the Chief Medical Examiner,
City of New York
Inmate 3 told the OIG that Epstein was allowed to sleep on the floor, which he said was unusual for the SHU
where that was not normally allowed. Inmate 3 said Epstein also had two extra blankets, which no other
inmate had, as well as two pens, which inmates were not allowed to have. Epstein would ask for things, and
if the COs said no, Epstein would tell them he was writing down their name and providing the information to
his lawyer. According to Inmate 3, the COs were on “eggshells” around Epstein. Inmate 3 said that when he
left the SHU on August 9, 2019, there was an orange cloth twisted around the ladder, strings on the side of
the ladder, and a string tied across the bed. Inmate 3 explained that the string tied across the bed served as
a clothesline, and that the strings were part of a sheet they had ripped. According to Inmate 3, one night he
woke up, saw Epstein fidgeting with the clothesline, and asked Epstein what he was doing. Epstein said he
was trying to fix the clothesline, but Inmate 3 told him no and flushed the clothesline down the toilet. As
discussed in Chapter 4, when Inmate 3 and Epstein first became cellmates upon Epstein’s return to the SHU
78
DOJ-OGR-00023445
Extracted Information
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00023445.jpg |
| File Size | 996.4 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 95.3% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 3,281 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 20:38:36.140897 |