Work release program suspended during Epstein investigation

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 6:44 pm CDT, Friday, August 2, 2019

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff has suspended a work release program that allowed Jeffrey Epstein to visit his office while staying at the county jail a decade ago.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw released a statement Friday saying that he's requested the county's independent Criminal Justice Commission to review the program.

Last month, Bradshaw opened criminal and internal affairs investigations into Epstein's 13-month stay at the Palm Beach County stockade. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution-related charges involving underage girls. Under a plea deal, Epstein was allowed to spend most days at his West Palm Beach office. Reports show Epstein also was able to visit his Palm Beach mansion, despite restrictions on home visits.

The 66-year-old Epstein faces new federal sex trafficking charges in New York and has pleaded not guilty.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Work-release-program-suspended-during-Epstein-14277449.php

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[mr_lebowski]

1. Funny thing, he wasn't even eligible for work release in the first place per its rules ...

Maybe nothing wrong with the 'program' as such, just the people administering it, failing to adhere to them.

People like you, Bradshaw.

But hey, let's suspend it and investigate, and punish the current prisoners who are entitled to use it ... cause of YOUR PEOPLE'S FUCKUP.

[rpannier]

2. I don't know if Bradshaw was sheriff in 2008, but according to the plea deal he had no option

per article:
Under a plea deal, Epstein was allowed to spend most days at his West Palm Beach office.

Sounds like the Prosecutor screwed it up

[mr_lebowski]

3. Fair enough ... still bullshit to shut down the program 12 years later, punish existing

prisoners ... because the bigwigs fucked up way back when.

This program doesn't allow work release for sex offenders, then, or now, from what I've read. So all that needs 'investigating' are the assholes that went 'round the rules.

It's just face-saving bullshit, too little, too late.

[Princess Turandot]

4. According to the earlier articles by Julie Brown, the Miami Herald reporter who shone light..

...on the whole ridiculous deal, the work release activities were set by PBC Sheriff Bradshaw. I think the article is just summarizing things a little too loosely. It was also Bradshaw who allowed him to participate in the program: there's some uncertainty at the moment as to whether or not his type of crime automatically disqualified him from participating at that point in time. (It does now.)

He allowed Epstein to also use his 'work release' as his required community service. Epstein went to the office of a 'charity' that he had established a month before his sentence began, one which apparently did pretty much nothing. (It was dissolved shortly after the sentence was over.) Women visited him there: the deputies were told to stay outside of his office suite, and just note who his visitors were.

They let him return to his home for hours at a time, and did not enter the house to see if anyone else was already there. That wasn't done on the sly by the deputies: they entered the visits in their logs, which is how the fact that they even happened came to the light.

Bradshaw seems to be trying whatever's available to escape this sinkhole. It wasn't the existence of the work release program that was the issue, it was how he applied it to Epstein.

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