Exactly. The turtle suit and "suicide watch" is because you get no blankets, the suit isnt particularly comfy, and a guard gets to bug you constantly to "check on you". It's harassment, plain and simple. They don't want to off him, they want to make him miserable.

I think quite simply, it makes him look crazy.

Sure but if his peers decide he gets a reduced sentence or walks, he may become a symbol of much much more. Theyd prefer he "suicides himself".

I think it's a mix of powerful people wanting him dead to avoid using a trial as a platform for his beliefs along with the chance he is found not guilty by a sympathetic jury.

Hard disagree. If he goes on trial and is acquitted (or the jury is hung), that puts a target on all their backs. This is potentially much more dangerous than Epstein.

I think they actually want to protect him because if he dies somehow, he'll become martyr.

Yeah more likely he'll get the Aaron Swartz treatment.