THE $64 QUESTION

With several recent documentaries on the subject of Jeffrey Epstein, I find myself once again answering a barrage of questions about the inmate with whom I spent several hours while working the suicide watch during the year I was imprisoned at MCC federal prison. And I'm reminded of an observation I made about Jeffrey Epstein while serving my yearlong sentence at the facility.

To many of the officers and few inmates who might appreciate my thoughts at the time, I pondered "exactly what is the difference between an 18 year-old and a 15 year-old when you're 66?" I just couldn't understand why a near billionaire with an amazing life would jeopardize his freedom over that 3 year difference.

I had the same feeling about Bill Clinton when he was the president. I didn't understand why the dude couldn't keep it in his pants while he was in office. Why muck the whole deal up over a piece of ass? Couldn't you just put a lid on it until you were out of office and then make up for lost time?

This is all about self-control - and two guys who clearly didn't have it. All Jeffrey Epstein had to do was lure 18 year-olds back to his mansion...and he and his girlfriend could have sexed them up with impunity. The big question that keeps Epstein in the news has to do with whether he committed suicide - or was murdered. And I find it bewildering that people are still debating this question (when I know he killed himself) rather than ask what was it in his psychological makeup that impelled him to target teenagers under the age of 18 rather than girls who'd reached the arbitrary line of delineation which would have protected him from prosecution.

On the former question (as to whether Jeffrey killed himself or not, I offer this: Though Epstein didn't strike me as suicidal while I watched him, I have no doubt that he killed himself. An inmate I'll call Brown (because that was his name) worked with me in the kitchen. At some point in his stay, Brown was sent to the SHU (special housing unit) for trying to set up a drug deal on the monitored email program available for inmate use. "Monitored" being the operative word, he got caught, punished, and sent to a cell right next to Jeffrey Epstein's. (Rule breakers and those seeking protective custody resided in the same unit at MCC.)

When Brown returned to the general population, he swung by to say hello and let me know that he'd heard the sound of sheets tearing from Jeffrey's cell the night he committed suicide, and added that nobody had come in or out of the tier that night. He expressed his opinion that Epstein definitely killed himself. Nobody did the job for him. Brown had no agenda in telling me all this. I believed him then. And I believe him to this day. Jeffrey Epstein killed himself.

As to why Jeffrey had this odd fetish for 15 year olds rather than girls just 3 years older? I have no idea. And it wasn't my job to ask him. But I think that's the question that should interest people. And not whether he committed suicide. What is it in powerful men's makeup that makes them powerless to control impulses that will surely derail their lives? That's the issue we should all address.