AS might be expected, I think of the C.O.'s that found him. Where I used to work in my jail and where I'm a supervisor at 2 nights a week, it's never easy to find a dead body. Now my area it's expected when it happens. I work in the prison infirmary which is more like the prison nursing home(where, sadly, prison inmates get better care than those in actual nursing homes) so when I would happen upon an inmate who succumbed to their disease or ailments, it isn't much of a shock but I know of others who working "inside" have found inmates dead either by natural causes, drug overdoses, and suicides. You'd be surprised how many people have never experienced a dead body in any form including friends or relatives at a funeral so when they find them, after all is said and done(death pronouncement, internal affairs clearing the body, the body being taken by the coroner) I always check in with the officer who found the body to see if they're OK. In this case, the officers are in for a lot of scrutiny because not only is the decedent famous but his lawyer is already saying he doesn't think it was a suicide.
The officers on duty are going to be put under the microscope and questioned as to how they did see this coming or catch him before he died. I don't know this prison's policies but at my jail, it's in the floor officers post orders that they are to do a security check every half hour on 3rd(midnight) shift. You know what that means. This usually means the officer does his checks at the top of the hour then the bottom of the hour like clockwork. Technically there's no wrong in this, however, anyone who has ever worked in a prison or security setting knows that it's bad practice to be like clockwork. When I was an officer and worked 3rd shift on overtime, I would break it up; top/bottom one hour, I might do another check in 5, 10, or 15 minutes then another 40 minutes. Don't establish a pattern but I digress. Believe it or not, it's a shock to find someone hanging. And believe me, it doesn't take long. Cop does his tour. Inmate sees him pass and after passing his cell, inmate ties the sheet around his neck and sits down. It takes 4 minutes for someone to choke out. This isn't the movies where a hanging inmate is swinging from the light fixtures or the top of the bars. We've had inmates hang themselves from the towel rack in their locker and it looked like they were just leaning inside their locker. Had another inmate put a plastic bag over his head, pull the blanket up over his head, and went to sleep. True story. Anyhoo, I hope the officers involved are OK and will be OK.