Correction officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas were on duty at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). the night Epstein was found unresponsive; the New York City Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide.
BY PC Bureau
December 24, 2025: The newly released Epstein files show that Jeffrey Epstein was the only inmate at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) to die by hanging in a decade, according to records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
The documents, provided in 2021 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to the legal team of BOP correction officer Tova Noel, detail the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death on August 10, 2019. Noel and fellow corrections officer Michael Thomas were on duty the night Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell. According to the records, Noel told a responding supervisor that “Epstein hung himself.”
Epstein was transported to a nearby community hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The New York City Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide. BOP records confirm that Epstein was an MCC inmate at the time of his death.
The files also show that, between 2010 and 2020, three other inmates died by suicide, but those incidents occurred either at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn or involved individuals previously housed at that facility—not at MCC in Manhattan.
The latest tranche of Epstein files released by the Justice Department include a 2019 prison report after a “possible suicide attempt” by the disgraced financier, including grim photos taken less than three weeks before he successfully ended his life in a Manhattan jail cell. -… pic.twitter.com/vka3JrxXkg
— 🇺🇸🇨🇿🇸🇪 PENNSYLVANIA IS TRUMP™ (@RED_IN_PA) December 24, 2025
Background on MCC and inmate safety
The MCC in Manhattan is a federal detention facility primarily used to hold pre-trial inmates, high-profile prisoners, and those awaiting transfer. The jail has long been criticized for overcrowding, staffing shortages, and lapses in security protocols, factors that have raised questions about its ability to monitor high-risk inmates. Epstein, who faced federal sex trafficking charges, had previously been placed on suicide watch but was taken off shortly before his death, according to media reports and prior investigations.
Epstein’s death sparked widespread controversy and multiple investigations into the jail’s procedures, including the roles of correction officers, facility administration, and federal oversight. The release of these records adds additional documentation to ongoing legal cases and civil claims involving MCC personnel.
Records show that two days before Epstein died , MCC staff made unsuccessful efforts to fix a digital video recorder (DVR) surveillance unit that had failed on July 29, 2019.
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The notes indicate that a staffer contacted a service provider on August 8 and 9, 2019, seeking technical assistance to restore the malfunctioning system. Epstein was found dead in his cell on August 10.
Following his death, emails over the subsequent months document FBI attempts to recover data or images from the faulty cameras, all of which proved unsuccessful. No video footage of Epstein’s tier on the night of his death was ever recovered
The files underscore the uniqueness of Epstein’s death at MCC over the past decade and highlight systemic issues in federal detention facilities that have drawn scrutiny from lawmakers, advocacy groups, and the public. Legal teams representing correction officers argue that the documents support their positions in civil and employment-related proceedings, while broader inquiries into MCC policies continue.
