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> Epstein had also been taken off suicide watch nine days earlier. That's a big reason why this is so suspicious.
by octopoc 7y ago
> Epstein had also been taken off suicide watch nine days earlier.
That's a big reason why this is so suspicious.
- 542458 7y agoIt's actually fairly normal to not keep people on suicide watch for very long. Full-blown suicide watch is expensive, but furthermore can stress a patient to the point of actually encouraging suicide. Being unable to sleep because your cell lights are kept on 24/7 and you're constantly getting checked on, the humiliation of having to wear a suicide smock, not having sheets on your bed, etc. You can argue that this is a crappy system, and I'd agree - but it is the dominant system in US prisons.
- loceng 7y agoI understand your point, however I want to rhetorically ask: expensive relative to what? What's a life worth? What's it worth to keep someone alive where there's very high probability that they alone could be linchpin to bring down a network of bad actors?
- 542458 7y ago> expensive relative to what? What's a life worth? I absolutely agree - it was stupid and shortsighted to take him off of suicide watch, and better suicide watch programs are needed in general. My point is more that nothing that much out of the ordinary for American jails happened here. Things happen in US jails every day that, to most people, would seem insane - incompetence and indifference to life are the norm. See my comment above - US jails are run on shoestring budgets with no accountability. People die in jail all the time for causes that were trivially preventable.
- lostlogin 7y ago>it was stupid and shortsighted to take him off of suicide watch Or was it clever, manipulative and a powerful demonstration of knowledge on how events would pan out?
- CamperBob2 7y agoMy point is more that nothing that much out of the ordinary for American jails happened here. This argument holds water if we're talking about an ordinary prisoner, but we aren't. Careers were at stake -- and reportedly have been lost -- over this one in particular. It made no sense not to give Epstein 24/7 supervision, with everything from (competent) guards outside his cell to dedicated IR cameras looking into it. Nobody is entitled to privacy in prison, so why was it voluntarily given?
- anigbrowl 7y agoI've been in jail and while I fully agree about the poor quality thereof, the argument that 'jail is crap there's your answer' is woefully insufficient; in the worst case, it can be used to foreclose any inquiry in specific circumstances by a sort of reverse concern trolling. It can be true both that the carceral system is hopelessly corrupt and should be abolished, and also that an individual death within the carceral system was avoidable and hyper-suspicious.
- hackermailman 7y agoFed prison policy to stop after x days, because most inmates to avoid being written up for things/force a transfer will threaten suicide and play the system.
- lazyasciiart 7y agoRelative to the prison staff budget.
- shadowgovt 7y agoEpstein himself was also a consummate con-man and sociopath. If he'd resolved to kill himself, he'd know the things to say to exit suicide watch as smoothly and cleanly as possible.
- not_a_cop75 7y agoWhy should we be so surprised that it could be so easy to kill someone inside a prison? It happens all the time.