US gov't to close New York jail where Jeffrey Epstein found hanged - report

The high-security Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan will be closed at least temporarily to resolve safety and infrastructure issues.

Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photo taken for the NY Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry (photo credit: REUTERS)
Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photo taken for the NY Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry
(photo credit: REUTERS)

US authorities will shut the federal prison where convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died, while they address a range of problems that came to light there after the financier's death two years ago, The New York Times reported.

The high-security Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan will be closed at least temporarily to resolve safety and infrastructure issues, the newspaper quoted the Justice Department as saying.

Neither the Department nor the Federal Bureau of Prisons responded to Reuters' requests for comment.

Epstein was found hanging in his cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide by medical examiners.

Criticism of conditions at the jail, whose other high-profile inmates have included Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, prompted US deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco to visit it this month.

An exterior view of the Metropolitan Correctional Center jail where financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York (credit: REUTERS)
An exterior view of the Metropolitan Correctional Center jail where financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York (credit: REUTERS)

The Times said 233 inmates were currently incarcerated there, most of whom were awaiting a trial. It was not immediately clear where they would be moved to, or when the prison would close.