By Dave Goldiner

New York Daily News

The Bureau of Prisons chief was ousted Monday, just days after the jailhouse suicide of billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein shone a spotlight on mismanagement and staffing woes at the federal agency.

Acting BOP director Hugh Hurwitz was removed from his post by Attorney General William Barr amid mounting evidence that officials bungled the case with Epstein, who killed himself Aug. 10 while being held at the chronically understaffed Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York.

Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, the prison agency’s director from 1992 until 2003, was appointed to replace Hurwitz, who has been reassigned.

Barr gave no specific reason for the shuffle but said last week that officials had uncovered “serious irregularities” and was angry that staff members at the jail had failed to “adequately secure this prisoner.”

He reassigned MCC warden Lamine N’Diaye last week and placed two guards who were supposed to be watching Epstein when he hanged himself on administrative leave.

The prisons agency has come under intense scrutiny since Epstein’s suicide, with lawmakers and Barr demanding answers about how Epstein was left virtually unsupervised at the supposedly maximum security jail as he awaited trial on charges he trafficked young girls for sex.

Those guards on Epstein’s unit failed to check on him every 30 minutes, as required, and are suspected of falsifying log entries to show they had, according to several people familiar with the matter. Both guards were working overtime because of staffing shortages.

Epstein, 66, was placed on suicide watch after he apparently tried to injure himself last month. He taken off the watch and put back in a high-security housing unit where he was less closely monitored.