Conspiracy theorists are having a field day with the news of Epstein suicide. Of course, much of this is a predictable consequence of any suspicious-seeming event, in our highly polarised political environment. But some is the result of a strange contradiction in the mindset of a good many conservatives:
On the one hand, conservatives believe (for good reason!) that government is prone to a wide range of perverse incentives and inefficiencies. But they tend to forget about that whenever the conversation turns to police and/or prisons. If the latter seem to have committed error or misconduct, this type of conservative tends to think that it's either "fake news" (often spread by the left), or some sort of conspiracy.
In reality, prisons are an environment where almost every aspect of inmates' lives is controlled by a government bureaucracy with horrible incentives, and a long history of both malevolence and incompetence. Screw ups are all too common. Admittedly, federal prisons (like the one Epstein was held in) have a generally better reputation than many state prisons. But that's in part because they have a much lower percentage of prisoners incarcerated for violent crimes (most such crimes are purely within state jurisdiction). What happened with Epstein is the kind of thing that is all too likely to occur just thanks to the "normal" flaws of prison management.
The question on why Epstein was able to successfully attempt suicide whilst on suicide watch is a fair point of contention but reports are surfacing that he was NOT on suicide watch when he died. In-fact, this article clearly articulates the outrage from experts that he wasn't. Upon reading further, you come across this:
"Jack Donson, a former longtime federal Bureau of Prisons case manager, told NBC News that suicide watch in federal lockup "usually only lasts a few days to week" due to the amount of manpower the 24-hour surveillance entails.
"It requires staff to do overtime shifts," Donson said, and is "not considered a good use of resources."
In other words, when they put him on suicide watch after he was found with injuries on July 23, and then took him off it after a few days, they were just following standard procedure. And all the officials involved probably knew they could cover their asses by pointing that out, should anything bad happen.
The standard procedure may be flawed. But that's true of a great many aspects of the way prisons are run!
I recognise this will not still the conspiracy theorists. So I will end with this question. Which is more likely:
A. Epstein killed himself once he got off suicide watch, and again had plenty of opportunities to do so. In a slight variant of this, he pays off a guard to look the other way and/or bring him some rope or other supplies (Epstein was a billionaire, after all, and could easily afford it).
B. Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, or some other powerful person fearful of what Epstein might reveal hires an assassin. The assassin gets into the cell, kills Epstein, and makes it look like a suicide. He doctors the crime scene so expertly that later examination will not reveal any sign of a struggle. And he does all this (and gets out) without anyone in a maximum-security prison noticing that he did it.
I wouldn't say that B is totally impossible. But A (or some variant thereof) is VASTLY more plausible and likely. And I don't say that because I have any great love for Trump (everyone who follows my writings at all knows otherwise), Clinton (I liked some of his policies, but the man himself is awful), Prince Andrew, or Epstein's other high society friends.