> The guards, the cameras,

People who don't know much about suicide prevention think these are important points, but anyone who works in suicide prevention can tell you that observations don't work; staff don't pay attention to the cctv monitors; staff lie about what they've done; people attach ligatures in ligature-point free rooms etc etc.

People kill themselves all the time, even when supposedly on 1:1 obs and in special wards.

> People who don't know much about suicide prevention think these are important points, but anyone who works in suicide prevention can tell you that observations don't work;

You are being intentionally misleading here. I'm not saying that they could have or should have prevented the suicide, but the guards should have been there to monitor. The cameras should have been there to record/document. It's not the prevention I'm concerned about, it's the convenient lack of documentation/monitoring/etc.

> People kill themselves all the time, even when supposedly on 1:1 obs and in special wards.

But how many cases as important as epstein, where he was being monitored via guards and camera, and being watched for suicide have both the guards and cameras fail?

Arguably the most important inmate in US custody ( maybe in history ) and the guards are sleeping and the cameras are not working? Give me a break. Even the most naive person has to admit things aren't kosher here.

> but the guards should have been there to monitor. The cameras should have been there to record/document.

Yes, but we know that guards do not monitor. We know cameras frequently aren't working.

> It's not the prevention I'm concerned about, it's the convenient lack of documentation/monitoring/etc.

You say "convenient", I say "sadly all too familiar".

> But how many cases as important as epstein, where he was being monitored via guards and camera, and being watched for suicide have both the guards and cameras fail?

Honestly loads. Fred West, Harold Shipman, were both notable serial killers who took their own lives when in prison. West murdered 12 people and was on remand. Shipman, who murdered over 200 people, had previously expressed suicidal intent and gave a reason for wanting to die.

> and the guards are sleeping and the cameras are not working?

You keep saying this, as if it's some kind of smoking gun. The thing I'm trying to tell you is that it's very common and that it's not in anyway surprising that a person, even a very high profile person, dies by suicide.

Were either of those serial killers allowed to take their own lives while they were still awaiting trial, and while their testimony was reasonably and widely believed to have the potential to implicate a large number of the ruling power elite?

Did either of them commit suicide within mere weeks of a previous attempt?

I just think it would require much less for a single guy to kill himself than for a vast conspiracy to have killed him in a secure facility. Stuck a conspiracy would have to have involved a great many people, many of whom are not rich and powerful.

It woyld have been far easier to just kill before custody, then they could have even just made it look like an accident.

They don't need to be rich or powerful - they just need to have something to lose or be believers in the 'it's for national security'. You don't need to ask the guards to fall asleep. You just need to ensure the doziest guards are put on the schedule.

Why do it in the prison?

A controlled environment where they have access to the cameras and all recording devices, not to mention all technology(access logs etc.) as well as no members of the public being around.

Out in public, you run a massive risk of some random noticing something/some camera inadvertently recording something.(or some random/some camera noticing/capturing something from the time leading up to it).

It's an avoidable mess.

Plus, a death in jail - people can rationalise it away - for the exact same reasons I listed above - 'oh, it's a controlled environment - $authorities control who goes in and out - they're not going let a random person walk around'

If I don't reply to this comment in 5 years, it is a sure sign that I have been targeted.

Last part is a joke.

Last part is a canary.

Joke.

Canary..

There was even one alleged suicide attempt several weeks before Epstein got his ticket punched! So any idea that this caught the jail by surprise is totally dishonest. Any idiot could (and many did!) see Epstein's death coming as long as they weren't wedded to pseudo-clever notions like "there's no such thing as conspiracies" or "they'd never do something so obvious and in-the-open."

Why are people so wedded to the notion that there is a conspiracy here? What if there isn't? What does it mean then?

I find that those who are strong believers in conspiracy theories never consider that they might just be wrong. No, anything that might suggest they're wrong is just further evidence of a cover up. I guess being wrong in this case would mean all the famous people who've been villainized for alleged participation in Epstein's trafficking aren't actually worthy of all the mud that's been thrown their way. He's actually more valuable as a political tool dead than he is alive so certain political groups can slander their opponents with connections to him and he can't refute anything. Here's an alternative conspiracy theory: right wing groups killed him so they could start a conspiracy theory that a powerful Democratic cabal that doesn't actually exist had him killed and dirty left wing politicians with association to him. Prove that didn't happen.

I'm not saying it's not true, maybe it is, but in absence of additional evidence it just seems most likely that the guy just killed himself to avoid being prosecuted for sex trafficking of children, which he was almost certainly guilty of.

But seriously, I still think any investigations should continue and any associates of his, whoever they are, should be brought to justice.