Prison deaths report finds widespread missteps, failures in latest sign of crisis in federal prisons
A watchdog report has found that the kind of systemic failures that enabled the high-profile prison deaths of notorious gangster Whitey Bulger and financier-sex offender Jeffrey Epstein also contributed to the deaths of hundreds of other federal prisoners in recent years
WASHINGTON (AP) — The kind of systemic failures that enabled the high-profile prison deaths of notorious gangster Whitey Bulger and financier-sex offender Jeffrey Epstein also contributed to the deaths of hundreds of other federal prisoners in recent years, a watchdog report released Thursday found.
Mental health care, emergency responses and the detection of contraband drugs and weapons were all lacking, according to the scathing report that's the latest sign of crisis at the federal Bureau of Prisons.
More than half of the 344 deaths over the course of eight years were suicides, and Justice Department watchdog investigators found policy violations and operational failures in many of those cases. That included inmates who were given potentially inappropriate mental health assignments and those who were housed in a single cell, which increases the risk of suicide.
In one-third of suicide cases, staff did not do enough checks of prisoners, an issue that has also been identified in Epstein's 2019 suicide.
