His death exposed a slew of problems inside the jail, and that list has only grown: rampant spread of the coronavirus, recording of squalid conditions, a loaded gun smuggled in, another inmate’s death.
The Associated Press was granted rare access inside - the first time a reporter has toured the facility since wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself there in August 2019. The Justice Department said last month it would close the jail in the coming months to undertake much-needed repairs – but it may never reopen. Once hailed as a prototype for a new kind of federal jail and the most secure in the country, the Metropolitan Correctional Center has become a blighted wreck, so deteriorated it’s impossible to safely house inmates. One cell is off-limits because the door is now unstable – likely because of constant pounding over the years from the prisoners inside on the cinder-block walls. Freezing temperatures force inmates to stuff old coronavirus face masks into vents to try to stop the cold air. NEW YORK (AP) - Inside the notorious federal jail in Lower Manhattan, small chunks of concrete fall from the ceiling.
