Nothing against your son, but nothing in your post talks about whether your son’s employer is able to maintain effective and humane control over its population. I’m glad he finds his work hilarious, but that’s not really the point here.
Alabama, for example, expects its prison population to decline to “only” 150 percent of capacity over the next couple of years; in Mississippi, the state’s correctional commissioner was forced to resign in 2014 after being charged in a 49-count federal corruption indictment (he’s doing prison time himself now), but the staffing levels are barely half what they were then, and some facilities have basically ceded control to the gangs. In Louisiana, just this month five now-former guards at Angola were indicted for involvementin a major drug-smuggling operation; 40 prison employees just at that one facility have been arrested in the past year. Florida has cut prison mental health and substance abuse services drastically. Georgia’s prisons face a suicide crisis.
There is some sensational reporting around the fact that Epstein has a break in his hyoid bone. The Washington Post has a good neutral piece that says:
Other outlets picked up the last sentence that the hyoid breaks are more common in homicide victims as suggesting he was murdered. I don’t buy it. The full article makes it clear that there is nothing particularly unusual about an old guy breaking his hyoid while hanging himself. This is still the simplest answer.
All the people suggesting that it’s really easy to just bribe the poorly paid guards into murdering a guy seem to suggest that every poor prison guard will just kill someone for $100 and a pack of smokes. What if the prison guard is financially stable and looking forward to his pension in a few months? How many other guards could prevent the death and must be brought into the conspiracy for it to succeed? How do you even figure out who the guard you have to bribe is? How many guards do you have to approach before someone says yes? What if anyone who says no goes straight to the FBI and reports your scheme? Bribing a guard to kill a person is not like bribing a guard to bring in a cell phone charger.
Personally, I feel that Epstein committed suicide with no outside assistance.
But if Trump and other right wingers are going to push for a conspiracy, we can’t allow them to go unchallenged. We have to fight back and point out that if Epstein was killed by a conspiracy, then Trump is a much likelier suspect than the Clintons. If he’s stoking a fire, we need to hold his feet to the flames.
The notion that you need to bribe any guards is a red herring, so far as I’m concerned. Bribing is not required.
Who ordered that Epstein be taken off suicide watch? Did anyone higher up influence the decision? There are procedures to be followed before this decision is made. Were they followed? Which medical personnel signed off on this decision? Any?
Who made the decision that Epstein no longer have a cellmate? Why was the decision made to depart from this protocol?
Who made the decision to assign inexperienced prison personnel to safeguard Epstein’s custody? Was it generally known that these individuals might occasionally slip out for an unauthorized nap?
Even though Epstein’s body has been released, I believe the cause of death is at present noted as “undetermined.” If it was a clear case of suicide, the medical examiner would have said so. S/he hasn’t.
Why was Bill Barr so eager to characterize the death as a suicide, even before the autopsy results were in?
These are legitimate questions surrounding this death. They are based on known facts. They require investigation and explanation. There is at present no proof of a conspiracy. But there is certainly reason to suspect there may have been one, and to investigate further.
When a man poses such a threat of substantial reputational harm to so many others in power, it does not require extraordinary imagination to consider if foul play played a role in his death – even if he died by his own hand.
I believe he was murdered but I don t know who did it. He had information and some really dirty secrets on lots, maybe thousands of people who have tons of money and influence and I think it could have been many people pulling the noose.
Do I think the Clintons did it? No. They are to obvious a suspect.
