TUESDAY, AUGUST 20 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
BY DEVLIN BARRETTAttorney General William P.
Barr announced Monday that he
is replacing the head of the Bu-
reau of Prisons, marking the lat-
est fallout from the death in fed-
eral custody of multimillionaire
Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused
of sex trafficking and abuse.
Hugh J. Hurwitz, the agency’s
acting head, will be replaced by
Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, who
served as Bureau of Prisons direc-
tor from 1992 to 2003.
Barr also appointed Thomas R.
Kane to serve as her deputy, a
position currently vacant.
The move shows how the death
of a single high-profile suspect is
likely to have far-reaching and
long-lasting consequences for the
$7 billion agency, which has oper-
ated for years in relative obscuri-
ty. Even before Epstein’s death,
Justice Department officials pri-
vately expressed frustration with
senior officials at the Bureau of
Prisons, but the apparent man-
agement flaws found since have
angered the department’s lead-
ers, including the attorney gener-
al, according to law enforcement
officials who, like others inter-
viewed for this report, spoke on
the condition of anonymity.
“I am pleased to welcome back
Dr. Hawk Sawyer as the Director
of the Federal Bureau of Prisons,”
Barr said in a statement. “Under
Dr. Hawk Sawyer’s previous ten-
ure at the Bureau, she led the
agency with excellence, innova-
tion, and efficiency, receiving nu-
merous awards for her outstand-
ing leadership.”
Barr said Hurwitz would re-
turn to his previous role as an
assistant director for the bureau’s
reentry programs. The attorney
general did not mention the Ep-
stein case in his announcement.
Robert Hood, a retired former
warden at the supermax federal
prison in Florence, Colo., called
Hawk Sawyer an “outstanding”
choice.
“After a lot of recent instability,
Kathleen Hawk Sawyer brings
stability and direction,” said
Hood, who has been critical of the
Bureau of Prisons’ recent leader-
ship. “She’s been a warden, she’s
been a trainer, and she means
business. It’s breathtaking to hear
that she’s back. It’s exciting for the
staff, many of whom have only
heard about her. They know she’s
a nuts-and-bolts person and a
very direct person to work with.”
Hood predicted that Hawk
Sawyer, a psychologist, will move
quickly to fix a major problem at
the bureau — the number of
senior positions that have gone
unfilled or had their responsibili-
ties delegated temporarily.
Epstein’s death on Aug. 10 has
already led to a shake-up at the
federal detention facility in Man-
hattan where he was being held.
The warden of the Metropolitan
Correctional Center was reas-
signed, and the two guards who
were supposed to be checking on
his cell were placed on leave.
Union officials have said that
such a death was inevitable be-
cause of short staffing and the
forced overtime that guards are
working.
The Justice Department sent
additional Bureau of Prisons per-
sonnel from across the country to
buttress the MCC workforce, and
a suicide reconstruction team
was sent to the facility to deter-
mine exactly how Epstein died,
according to a person familiar
with the matter.
Critics of the Bureau of Prisons
have said Epstein’s death, along
with other security failures,
should spur overdue changes in-
side the federal prison system.
For example, no one has been
charged in last year’s killing of
Boston gangster James “Whitey”
Bulger at a West Virginia prison.
The bureau also was hit with a
hiring freeze — since lifted — at
the beginning of the Trump ad-
ministration, and union officials
say that MCC and many other
facilities do not have enough em-
ployees to operate effectively.
Epstein, 66, was found in his
cell as MCC staffers made their
morning rounds. An official said
he hanged himself with a bed-
sheet attached to the top of a
bunk bed. He was taken to a
nearby hospital, where he was
pronounced dead.
On Friday, New York City’s
chief medical examiner, Barbara
Sampson, ruled that Epstein died
of suicide by hanging.
“After careful review of all in-
vestigative information, includ-
ing complete autopsy findings,
the determination on the death of
Jeffrey Epstein is below — Cause:
Hanging. Manner: Suicide,”
Sampson said in a short state-
ment. She did not detail the evi-
dence that led her to that conclu-
sion.
Epstein’s attorneys have re-
fused to accept the medical exam-
iner’s findings, saying they would
conduct their own “independent
and complete investigation into
the circumstances and cause of
Mr. Epstein’s death.”
The lawyers — Martin G. Wein-
berg, Reid Weingarten and Mi-
chael Miller — said they were
prepared to sue the government
for access to any security video
from the time of his death.
Meanwhile, Epstein’s last will
and testament has been filed in
the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he
had a home. The document, first
reported by the New York Post,
puts Epstein’s $577 million inassets into a trust. It is unclear
from the document who the ben-
eficiaries of the trust are. Epstein
signed the will just two days
before his death.
Epstein had been held at the
detention facility in Lower Man-
hattan since his arrest July 6 on
sex trafficking charges. He was
accused of abusing numerous
teenage girls over several years in
the early 2000s and had pleaded
not guilty.In a speech last week, Barr
decried what he called a “failure”
of Bureau of Prisons personnel to
keep Epstein secure, saying he
was “appalled... and, frankly,
angry” over the incident. “We are
now learning of serious irregular-
ities at this facility that are deeply
concerning and demand a thor-
ough investigation,” he said.
That task has fallen to the FBI
and the Justice Department in-
spector general. People familiarwith the investigations have said
that Epstein was left alone in a
cell and that guards failed to
check on him for several hours,
after officials had given explicit
instructions for him not to be left
alone and for guards to check on
him every 30 minutes.
Those precautions were in
place partly because of Epstein’s
apparent suicide attempt July 23,
though the specifics of that inci-
dent have been debated and offi-cials say it is still under examina-
tion.
After that incident, when staff-
ers at the detention center found
light markings on Epstein’s neck,
officials placed him on suicide
watch for about a week before
returning him to the special hous-
ing unit, where prisoners get
more scrutiny and security.
Less than two weeks later, he
was dead.
[email protected]After Epstein’s death, Bureau of Prisons leader replaced
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