The judicial system considers a person charged with a crime "innocent until found guilty by a jury of their peers." However, law enforcement appears to believe the opposite, "guilty until your lawyer gets you off."

That is why the circumstances surrounding Jeffery Epstein's death are so wanting.

This is gross negligence and not just for Jeffery Epstein. I don't know who wrote the protocols for the Department of Prisons, but, every 30 minutes, even when carried out correctly is inviting trouble. In normal psychiatric settings, the protocol is every 15 minutes and many caregivers of those folks will tell you even 15 minutes may seem too long.

Even though there is a protocol, that doesn't mean it has to be adhered to strictly. If every 15 minutes seems to long for a patient then "good practice" dictates there is either a 24 hour observation of the patient or the caregivers change the routine to every 10 or 5 minutes depending on the patient. That means whoever is in charge of the facility may be required to bring in extra help assigned only to that patient or he or she carries out the task themselves.

There is no reason for a person's death because of short staffed shifts. This is the result and it is unforgivable. People charged with a crime are INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. Even after found guilty they have a right to good care when it comes to their mental and physical health. Incarceration is very difficult. Being limited to a jail cell when used to flying a jet from day to day is cruel. It is necessary, but, doesn't mean it isn't cruel. That is what prison is, it limits movement. Freedoms are taken away and that to many is punishment enough. 

I have no patience with this. It isn't the guards fault, they are trained to carry out the protocols. The blame lays exactly where the policies are written and passed on to the management. It lies with the big bucks, the six to seven figure salary persons. Whoever wrote this policy cared more about their budget than the prisoners in their care.

That is my opinion and I will not change my mind. If a society is going to remove people from their freedoms as punishment for crimes, then after they have served their sentence (as if life isn't short enough) they are to be returned to society, intact and able to work and begin again.

August 11, 2019
By Bill Hutchinson and Aaron Katersky

Jail protocols requiring routine checks (click here) on the wellbeing of accused sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein appear to have not been followed in the hours before the millionaire was found hanging in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, sources told ABC News on Sunday.

As an inmate in the Special Housing Unit at MCC, Epstein should have been checked on by a correctional officer every 30 minutes, according to Bureau of Prison protocols. But sources told ABC News that protocol was not followed prior to Epstein’s death by suicide.

In recent weeks, the correctional officers' union has complained of understaffing. Those gripes are now part of the investigation into whether the 30-minute checks were happening, sources said.

The two guards that were at the Special Housing Unit where Epstein was housed, were both on overtime. One officer was working a mandatory overtime shift. The other officer was working his fifth overtime shift of the week, a single source familiar with the matter told ABC News. This was first reported by CNN...