“The U.S. government said Thursday it is shutting down an embattled federal jail in New York City after a slew of problems that came to light following Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there two years ago. The federal Bureau of Prisons said the Metropolitan Correctional Center will be closed at least temporarily to address issues that have long plagued the facility, including lax security and crumbling infrastructure. The facility, in a complex of government buildings in lower Manhattan, currently has 233 inmates, down from a normal population of 600 inmates or more. Most of them are expected to be transferred to a federal jail in Brooklyn” WNBC reports.
“The decision to close the Metropolitan Correctional Center, which had been billed as one of the most secure jails in America comes weeks after Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco toured the jail and saw the conditions firsthand. ‘In an effort to address the issues at MCC NY as quickly and efficiently as possible, the Department has decided to close the MCC, at least temporarily, until those issues have been resolved,’ the Justice Department said in a written statement.”