The two staff members who were responsible for guarding the unit when Jeffrey Epstein died of apparent suicide over the weekend fell asleep for nearly three hours when they were supposed to check on the prisoner every 30 minutes, The New York Times reported.
The same staff members — whom Attorney General William Barr directed be placed on administrative leave until the end of the investigation on Tuesday — then falsified their duty log to try to cover up the mistake, which could be considered a federal crime, according to the Times. Both guards were working overtime. One had been forced to due to short staffing and the other had not been working as a guard at the time, but volunteered to do the duties for the overtime pay, according to the Times.
Epstein, the billionaire financier being held on federal sex trafficking charges, was found dead at 6:30 a.m. ET Saturday. Epstein reportedly apparently hanged himself with a bedsheet. He was supposed to have a cellmate, but that person had been transferred out of his cell on Friday night and was not replaced.
Epstein had previously been placed on suicide watch for six days previously, but was determined to no longer be a threat to his own life.
Overtime pay to sleep! Now that’s something lots of people would love to sign up for and it’s not even a study for sleep disorders. Now, they’re on administrative leave and I assume that means they’re getting paid to do more sleeping.
Guess their backup plan had a couple of flaws . . .
Riiiiight. Blame the guard who is not even an actual guard and the guard pulling a double shift. Yeah, I’m sure that’s all there is to it. Not the folks who set that up or who created those conditions for the most important prisoner in the whole system. Nope, it was like totally the lowly, overworked, undertrained, and understaffed guards’ fault. Like totally. Not the bosses’ fault. Nope. Why, a cynical person might suggest that this set-up was designed to fail. Good thing there is no reason to be cynical with this crew, huh? Nope, no one in charge could have ever seen this happening — why, it’s unimaginable with such a fool-proof system in place. Why, what high-value prison doesn’t rely on just some dude off the street to guard the highest value prisoners. Sounds totally legit. LOL — yeah, totally the lowly guards’ fault. Nope — not those in charge like Barr. He’s as pure as the driven snow, yessiree.
This is the result of doing more with less. No one wants to pay benefits so it requires supervisors to cut positions and push the remaining employees to work beyond their capacity. Then the workers get in trouble when crap like this happens.
. . .found a new temporary assignment: