Full Text
The Electronics Technician told the OIG that, throughout his tenure at MCC New York, the camera system was subject to frequently recurring failures, particularly with respect to the DVR hard drives.49
The Warden, who assumed his responsibilities at MCC New York in May 2018, told the OIG he was generally aware that there were problems with the security camera system throughout the institution. He further stated that efforts were undertaken to determine which cameras were working and which needed to be fixed, and that MCC New York officials intended to ultimately seek funding to replace the entire system. Federal Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) records reflect that on September 6, 2018, the Warden submitted a memorandum to the BOP's Northeast Regional Director to request $800,000 in funding to replace the entire camera system. The memorandum identified an estimated project start date of December 1, 2018, and an estimated completion date of February 9, 2019. The BOP approved the funding request, and on September 21, 2018, a contract in the amount of $698,108.99 was awarded to Company 1 to provide various equipment for the project and associated labor. On September 24, 2018, a separate contract in the amount of $34,089.28 was awarded to Company 2 to provide assorted networking equipment and wiring needed to install the camera system.
As the camera upgrade project was beginning, BOP officials recognized that MCC New York's mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems were also in need of major repairs. MCC New York did not have enough qualified technicians on staff to complete both the camera installation and other repairs needed at the facility, so beginning the week of March 17, 2019, the BOP's Northeast Regional Office arranged for technicians from other BOP institutions to conduct temporary duty (TDY) assignments at MCC New York to perform the work. During the course of the TDY rotations, work was not consistently conducted on the camera upgrade because sometimes TDY staff assigned to the project were used to cover shortages at MCC New York's custody posts, and sometimes there were not enough TDY volunteers who possessed the skills required to do the camera work.
At the time of Epstein's death on August 10, 2019, the camera system upgrade had not been completed. Immediately following Epstein's death, Company 1 officials arrived at MCC New York and installed the new recording system within a couple of days, and recording functionality was restored using the existing cameras. The majority of the new cameras did not arrive at the facility until October 2019, and they were installed in stages as the wiring work was conducted. According to the Electronics Technician, as of August 2021, when the MCC closed, the wiring work had still not been fully completed.
II. Discovery of Security Camera System Recording Issues in August 2019
A. Discovery on August 8 of the DVR 2 Failure that Occurred on July 29
According to forensic analysis conducted by the FBI after Epstein's death, disk failures occurred in MCC New York's DVR 2 system on July 29, 2019, which resulted in the system being unable to record. According to BOP records and OIG interviews, the BOP did not learn about the failure until August 8, 2019, when the Special Investigative Services (SIS) Lieutenant and Associate Warden 1 attempted to review recorded surveillance video for a matter unrelated to Epstein. The SIS Lieutenant told the OIG she discovered that no
49 The Electronics Technician provided the OIG with copies of email messages and work orders that documented nine instances between June 2017 and July 2019, in which actions were taken to address a problem with either the MCC New York's cameras or the hard drives used to record video from the cameras.