Gun found in New York City jail where financier killed himself

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators found a loaded gun that had been smuggled into the jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself last summer, following a weeklong lockdown that turned up other contraband and led to a criminal probe into guard misconduct, the federal Bureau of Prisons told the Associated Press.

The handgun was located Thursday by Bureau of Prisons officers inside a housing unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, prison officials said. It marked a massive breach of protocol and raised serious questions about the security practices in place at the Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for more than 175,000 federal inmates, and specifically at the jail, which had been billed as one of the most secure in America. Officials have not said how the gun had been smuggled inside the jail.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into potential misconduct by guards, focusing on the flow of contraband into the lockup uncovered during the search for the gun, three people familiar with the matter told the AP. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

Attorney General William Barr named a new director last week to take charge of the agency, which has been the subject of intense scrutiny since Epstein took his own life while in custody in August. But the agency has been plagued for years by serious misconduct, violence and a chronic staffing shortage

The investigation and search at the Manhattan facility began last week after officials received information that a gun may have been smuggled into the lockup and placed the jail on lockdown “in order to protect the public, staff and inmates until a comprehensive search could be completed,” the agency said in a statement.

Since then, officials have been keeping inmates in their cells without access to their lawyers and canceled...