When federal officials arrested Jeffrey Epstein on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, they realized the gravity of their task as they placed him into custody. High-ranking officials required consistent updates from the leadership at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, as revealed in emails released by the government on Tuesday evening.

Corrections officers were instructed with what they described as orders from “God” to vigilantly monitor Epstein. However, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General noted they failed to do so.

“Shirley – I need a daily update on this inmate, his condition, and any activities or changes that need addressing,” said J. Ray Ormond, the Bureau of Prisons Northeast Regional Director, in a message to MCC Associate Warden Shirley Skipper-Scott on July 24, 2019, just weeks before Epstein’s death in custody.

“He claimed he forgot the incident,” Mark Epstein remarked. “Jeffrey wasn’t foolish. You don’t simply forget the reason for marks around your neck or waking up on the floor. You don’t forget how you arrived there.”

Initially put on suicide watch, Jeffrey Epstein was later housed with another inmate, who went to court on Aug. 9. The judge later allowed the cellmate’s release, leaving Epstein alone in his cell until his passing.

Epstein spent a large portion of that day meeting with his lawyers. After they left around 6:45 p.m., guards let him make an unauthorized, unmonitored phone call, according to the IG report. He claimed he was calling his mother. He is believed to have called his girlfriend. 

A still image from surveillance video shows a portion of the wing where Jeffrey Epstein was held when he died. The camera with a direct view of his cell was not recording at the time, according to authorities. (MCC/U.S. Bureau of Prisons)

Although most of the security cameras in Epstein’s wing of the jail were not actually recording, he is believed to have been returned to his cell before 8 p.m., when authorities locked the unit down for the night.

His last contact with guards came around midnight on Aug. 10. Although guards were supposed to conduct checks every 30 minutes, and Epstein’s cell was within line of sight of an officer’s desk, no one checked on him until around 6:30 a.m., when staff serving breakfast found him unresponsive in his cell, according to authorities. 

He was pronounced dead, and the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy the following day, called for further investigation and later ruled that he hanged himself. 

His brother has publicly rejected that conclusion, and his former lover and only convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, also said more than once that she doesn’t believe he would have killed himself.

Two MCC guards who were accused of sleeping on the job and searching the internet instead of monitoring Epstein, then lying about details of their shift, accepted a plea deal that gave them each 100 hours of community service. They cooperated with the OIG probe.

In August 2021, the jail was ordered closed temporarily. Authorities have not yet announced plans to reopen it.

Many of Epstein’s accusers rallied on Capitol Hill Wednesday ahead of a congressional vote to release more Epstein records to the public.