Metropolitan Correctional Center was previously accredited by NCCHC (National Commission on Correctional Healthcare) and is still currently accredited by ACA (American Correctional Association), despite the facility being temporarily closed down. NCCHC has extremely rigid standards that ensure minimal risk of an inmate attempting or completing suicide. ACA is less rigid, but the standards are still very rigid, its more for the correctional departments rather than the healthcare/mental healthcare departments. I know this because I was part of the committee that was ensuring that my facility was accredited. The audits are ruthless – a team of auditors come in and spend 3-5 days (or more for the very large facilities) at the facility. During that time, they spend time reviewing the Jail Management System (JMS), which is essentially the database for the correctional classification staff to make sure they're housing inmates appropriately. They spend time looking at the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, to ensure that the healthcare and mental healthcare departments are classifying and housing the inmates appropriately. They also do thorough walkthroughs, detailed interviews with random inmates, detailed interviews with random correctional staff, and detailed interview with random healthcare/mental healthcare staff. Its very intense.
The general spoken rule of thumb is that there is one completed suicide per year per facility. Again, this is for inmate deaths, not suicide attempts, those are fairly common. The data shows an even lower completed suicide rate. The Department of Justice published an article about the suicide rate in correctional facilities, noting 340 completed suicides across 1,161 prisons in 2019, and 355 completed suicides in 2,845 jails. This comes out to an average of .29 suicides per prison per year, and .13 suicides per jail per year, so less than 1 per year. The Metropolitan Correctional Center in NYC has not had a completed suicide since 1998. That's a fantastic rate that is far less than the national average and it clearly shows that they were following NCCHC and ACA standards.
Not only is it an NCCHC and ACA standard to automatically place high profile inmates on suicide precautions on arrival, but its a standard to keep them on administrative confinement. This means that high profile inmates are always in celled housing (as opposed to general population or open bay housing). They are able to have up to one cellmate who is thoroughly vetted by the classification team and mental health team to ensure that they are safe to be housed with another inmate. This vetting process is very careful, because if there ever is a completed suicide, the family can directly go after the individuals that made made the decision and claim neglect. Inmates in celled housing get 15 to 30 minute checks, meaning the officer has to walk by, lay eyes on the inmate, and make sure they're breathing. This is essentially what you used to see in old movies where the officer walks by clanging their baton against the bars of the cell, to see movement to make sure they're still alive. But that's the old movies, currently, they protocol is the same, except they can peer in through the glass and watch for breathing. If I'm being honest, officers falsify this document pretty regularly. I wouldn't say its super common, but its definitely falsified enough for it to be a known problem. Anyway, inmates on administrative confinement are considered to be the most safe and protected inmates in the facility, these are the inmates that are isolated from the rest of population for one reason or another per correctional, healthcare, or mental healthcare request (high profile, at high risk of being harmed by other inmates, at high risk of harming other inmates, inmate being a prominent figure in their community, etc). Epstein checked the high profile and risk of being harmed by other inmates box. Administrative confinement inmates are locked in their cell 23 hours a day with 1 hour of out of cell time, which is ALWAYS spent alone, while the other inmates remain locked in their cells. This is for their protection and the protection of other inmates.
ACA standards also note that there are to be no camera blind spots, and require backup camera angles in case one ever were to go down. If there are blind spots, they can only be acceptable IF they have an officer watching that post 24/7. The issue with the cameras being "so old that 1 minute is always missing" is an absolute breach of standards. Especially on an administrative confinement, as these are highly secured inmates and considered among the highest risk of harming themselves or being harmed by others. The only inmates that are more closely monitored are inmates placed on suicide precautions and other inmates with an administrative constant observation order. In most facilities, inmates on administrative confinement have a camera IN their cell which is monitored by an officer whose job is to literally sit there and watch the cameras in just those cells for the entire shift – so lets say there are 20 cells with cameras, the officer watches two monitors of 20 cells of inmates doing nothing – sleeping, working out, reading, etc. Another two officers watch the inmate that gets out of cell time.
Regardless of standards and accreditation, all staff that work at this facility would naturally keep Epstein safe because it not only puts their careers at risk, but also their livelihood. Especially considering that they have done this so well over the course of so many years. They are used to monitoring high profile inmates at this facility, including – John Gotti and Jackie D'Amico (from the Gambino mafia), Frank Lucas (Denzel played him in "American Gangster"), Bernie Madoff, the 1993 WTC bombers, Victor Bout (Russian arms trafficker, Nicholas Cage played a character directly inspired by him in "Lord of War"), and literally El Chapo. None of them ever committed suicide there, the last inmate suicide was a random inmate involved with organized crime.
TL;DR –
- At the time of the death, the facility that Epstein "committed suicide" at was accredited by two organizations that have extremely high standards to ensure that everyone is safe.
- Epstein was on administrative confinement, which is considered to be a highly protected class of inmates for a variety of reasons, one of which being a high profile case. These inmates are among the most closely monitored inmates of any facility. Yes, suicides are possible in these settings despite the close observation, but there many objective inconsistencies here that don't add up.
- The facility that Epstein killed himself had an exceptionally low completed suicide rate (almost 3 times less likely to commit suicide at this jail vs others). Their last completed suicide was in 1998, which was 21 years prior. So their accreditation appears justified, they seem to follow the protocol quite closely.
- The camera issues would automatically discredit the facility from being accredited by both organizations. That's essentially the easiest standard to achieve, just have working cameras, with backup angles. That is such a blatant violation of standards that there's no way they could have remained accredited.
- The falsifying of records is a bit more common, but if that was discovered, they would immediately lose ACA accreditation. Even though they are currently temporarily closed down (likely due to the security concerns following Epstein's death), they still have their ACA accreditation.
- This facility is used to dealing with very high profile inmates including John Gotti and Jackie D'Amico (from the Gambino mafia), Frank Lucas (Denzel played him in "American Gangster"), Bernie Madoff, the 1993 WTC bombers, Victor Bout (Russian arms trafficker, Nicholas Cage played a character directly inspired by him in "Lord of War"), and literally El Chapo. Somehow they managed to keep all of them safe and prevented them from committing suicide, especially with their exceptionally low suicide rate with their last completed suicide being 21 years ago.
- In summary, the entire thing does not add up. They have a proven track record of keeping inmates safe, especially high profile inmates, they have accreditation by two organizations with extremely rigid standards, and they have not had a suicide in 21 years because they're obviously doing something right. Now the facility is closed down due to "a combination of issues including crumbling infrastructure, security lapses, and concerns about the safety and well-being of inmates". He did not commit suicide.
SOURCE: I worked in corrections for over 5 years and was on the committee of ensuring accreditation by both of these organizations.
Posted by Zski843