“When accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself while awaiting trial this month, it was the first recorded suicide at Manhattan’s federal detention center in 13 years. But across the vast Bureau of Prisons, suicides have been gradually ticking up even as the overall inmate population has declined. Twenty-seven federal inmates committed suicide in the fiscal year that ended in September 2018, the largest number in at least the past five years, according to prison system records. At least 21 inmates, including Epstein, have killed themselves in federal facilities since Oct. 1.“

USA Today

August 22, 2019