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OIG Official Draft Report: BOP’s Care, Custody, and Supervision of Jeffrey Epstein at MCC New York, New York June 22, 2023 Page 2 of 3 In April of this year, BOP’s leadership announced tts new mission as "corrections professionals who foster a humane and secure environment and ensure public safety by preparing individuals for successful reentry into our communities." BOP’s new core values include accountability, integrity, respect, compassion, and correctional excellence. Of note, our core value of accountability requires BOP employees to be responsible and transparent to the public, ourselves, and to those in our care and custody by the standards we establish, the actions we take, and the duties we perform. As reflected in our mission and core values, BOP is committed to providing a safe environment for both employees and adults in our custody. Recommendation One: The BOP should implement a process for assigning a cellmate following suicide watch or psychological observation, with criteria for exceptions based on the particular individual or security considerations. BOP’s Response: The BOP recognizes the importance of careful monitoring of adults in custody who face mental health challenges and therefore concurs with this recommendation. Our practice is to carefully consider both the well-being and safety of the individual involved and overarching safety and security concerns. In the years since Mr. Epstein’s death, the BOP has updated its process related to suicide watch and psychological observation. Under BOP’s revised process, upon removal from suicide watch or psychological observation, psychologists make individualized care recommendations about clinical follow-up and other custodial concerns, including housing and cellmates. Mental health, custody, and unit team employees work collaboratively to ensure that each individual removed from suicide watch is housed appropriately. Recommendation Two: The BOP should establish procedures to ensure inmates at high risk for suicide and for whom a cellmate is recommended will continue to have a cellmate until the recommendation is changed or rescinded, including establishing a contingency plan for cellmate re-assignment, with criteria for exceptions based on the particular individual or security considerations. BOP’s Response: The BOP concurs with this recommendation. As described in its response to Recommendation 1, BOP’s current process related to suicide watch and psychological observation applies an individualized approach to the care and custody of adults in custody. Upon removal from suicide watch or psychological observation, individualized care recommendations are made by psychologists, custody, and unit team for each individual. BOP thoroughly evaluates each celling assignment on an individual basis for persons deemed to be at moderate to high risk for suicide. Recommendation Three: The BOP should evaluate its current process for obtaining and documenting approval for social or legal visits while an inmate is on suicide watch or psychological observation, which allows for institution-specific variations in the process, and provide guidance on standard components that each institution should include in its process to mitigate security issues that can arise when an inmate is on suicide watch or psychological observation. 116 DOJ-OGR-00023483