Guards watching Jeffrey Epstein at time of death were on overtime and ‘severely overworked’: union president

The two correctional officers assigned to watch the special unit in the jail where financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was being housed when he apparently hanged himself on Saturday were working overtime – one forced to do so by management, the other for his fourth or fifth consecutive day, the president of the local union for jail workers said on Sunday.

The assertion came as investigators continued to explore the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death. New York City’s chief medical examiner, Barbara Sampson, said her office conducted an autopsy of Epstein’s body on Sunday but had not yet reached a determination on cause of death “pending further information”. The medical examiner also allowed a private pathologist, Michael Baden, to observe the autopsy examination at the request of Epstein’s representatives, Sampson said.

Serene Gregg, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3148, said the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan is functioning with less than 70 per cent of the needed correctional officers, forcing many to work mandatory overtime and 60 or 70 hours per week.

She said one of the individuals assigned to watch Epstein’s unit did not normally work as a correctional officer but, like others in roles such as counsellors and teachers, was able to do so. She declined to say which one or specify the person’s regular role.

“If it wasn’t Mr. Epstein, it would have been somebody else, because of the conditions at that institution,” Gregg said. “It wasn’t a matter of how it happened or it happening, but it was only a matter of time for it to happen. It was inevitable. Our staff is severely overworked.”