FILE – This July 27, 2006 arrest file photo made available by the Palm Beach, Fla., Sheriff’s Office shows Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, has been arrested in New York on sex trafficking charges. Two law enforcement officials said Epstein was taken into federal custody Saturday, July 6, 2019, on charges involving sex-trafficking allegations that date to the 2000s. (AP Photo/Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, File)
A former inmate who had been incarcerated for several months in the same part of the Metropolitan Correctional Center as Jeffrey Epstein spoke to New York Post reporters Brad Hamilton and Bruce Golding on Saturday. This area, called the 9 South special housing unit, was reserved for “high-profile prisoners awaiting trial.”
To be sure, we will hear more than a few conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death in the coming weeks, but I thought I would share this man’s story because he had once been an “insider.”
This man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, does not believe Epstein killed himself. And, in his own words, he explains his reasons below:
“There’s no way that man could have killed himself. I’ve done too much time in those units. It’s an impossibility.
Between the floor and the ceiling is like eight or nine feet. There’s no way for you to connect to anything.
You have sheets, but they’re paper level, not strong enough. He was 200 pounds — it would never happen.
When you’re on suicide watch (see note below), they put you in this white smock, a straight jacket. They know a person cannot be injurious to themselves.
The clothing they give you is a jump-in uniform. Everything is a dark brown color.
Could he have done it from the bed? No sir. There’s a steel frame, but you can’t move it. There’s no light fixture. There’s no bars.
They don’t give you enough in there that could successfully create an instrument of death. You want to write a letter, they give you rubber pens and maybe once a week a piece of paper.
Nothing hard or made of metal.
And there’s a cop at the door about every nine minutes, whether you’re on suicide watch or not.
There’s up to 80 people there. They could put two in cell. It’s one or two, but I’ll never believe this guy had a cellmate. He was too blown up.
The damage that unit can do to someone.
It’s like you’re an animal and you’ve been brought into a kennel. A guy like Jeffrey, it’s like, “Holy sh-t.”
I told my parents not to come there. God wasn’t in the building.
I’ve had some heavy incidents in the building. What happened is permanent.
Some of the guards are on a major power trip. They know guys there are suffering. They know something the rest of the world hasn’t seen, that a place like this exists in this country, and they get off on it.
If the guards see that the guy is breaking, they’re going to help you break.
But it’s my firm belief that Jeffrey Epstein did not commit suicide. It just didn’t happen.”
Note: NBC, The New York Post and other media outlets confirmed Epstein had been removed from suicide watch at the end of July.
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