NEW YORK – As they unsuccessfully fought to keep Sean “Diddy” Combs out of jail after his sex trafficking arrest, the music mogul’s lawyers highlighted a litany of horrors at the Brooklyn federal lockup where he was headed: horrific conditions, rampant violence and multiple deaths.
Combs, 54, was sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Tuesday — a place that’s been described as “hell on earth” and an “ongoing tragedy” — after pleading not guilty in a case that accuses him of physically and sexually abusing women for more than a decade.
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The facility, the only federal jail in New York City, has been plagued by problems since it opened in the 1990s. In recent years, its conditions have been so stark that some judges have refused to send people there. It has also been home to a number of high-profile inmates, including R. Kelly, Ghislaine Maxwell and cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
In a statement, the federal Bureau of Prisons said: “We also take seriously addressing the staffing and other challenges at MDC Brooklyn.” An agency team is working to fix problems, including by adding permanent correctional and medical staff, remedying more than 700 backlogged maintenance requests and answering judges' concerns.
A judge on Wednesday denied a request by Combs' lawyers to let him await trial under house arrest at his $48 million mansion on an island in Miami Beach, Florida.
Here are some important things to know about the jail:
What is the Metropolitan Detention Center?
The Bureau of Prisons opened the facility, known as MDC Brooklyn, as a jail in the early 1990s.
It’s used mainly for post-arrest detention for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Other inmates are there to serve short sentences following convictions.
The facility, in an industrial area on the Brooklyn waterfront, has about 1,200 detainees, down from more than 1,600 in January. It has outdoor recreation facilities, a medical unit with examination rooms and a dental suite. It has a separate wing for educational programs and the jail’s library.
The Bureau of Prisons closed its crumbling Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan in 2021, leaving MDC Brooklyn as its only facility in the nation’s largest city.
What are some problems with MDC Brooklyn?
Detainees have long complained about rampant violence, dreadful conditions, severe staffing shortages and the widespread smuggling of drugs and other contraband, some of it facilitated by employees. At the same time, they say they’ve been subject to frequent lockdowns and have been barred from leaving their cells for visits, calls, showers or exercise.
In June, Uriel Whyte, 37, was stabbed to death at the jail. A month later, Edwin Cordero, 36, died after he was hurt in a brawl. At least four people detained at the jail have died by suicide in the last three years.
Cordero’s lawyer, Andrew Dalack, told The New York Times his client was just the victim of “an overcrowded, understaffed and neglected federal jail that is hell on earth.”
At least six MDC Brooklyn staff members have been charged with crimes in the last five years. Some were accused of accepting bribes or providing contraband such as drugs, cigarettes, and cellphones, according to an Associated Press analysis of agency-related arrests.
MDC Brooklyn has also come under fire for its response to debilitating infrastructure breakdowns and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, a week-long power failure sparked unrest among shivering inmates and drew concerns from federal watchdogs. In March 2020, the jail had the first federal inmate to test positive for COVID-19.
As of last November, according to court filings, MDC Brooklyn was operating at about 55% of full staffing, which was taxing to employees and added to its security woes.
What is being done about these problems?
Judges and advocates have taken notice, excoriating the Bureau of Prisons for “dangerous, barbaric conditions” and pressing the agency to make improvements. Some judges have moved away from sending defendants to MDC Brooklyn or have given reduced sentences because of the conditions there.
In January, U.S. District Judge Furman took the rare step of allowing Gustavo Chavez, 70, to remain free on bail after his conviction for drug crimes rather than locking him up at the Brooklyn jail to await sentencing.
“Prosecutors no longer even put up a fight, let alone dispute that the state of affairs is unacceptable,” Furman wrote.
In August, U.S. District Judge Gary Brown said he would vacate a 75-year-old defendant’s nine-month sentence for tax fraud and place him on home confinement if the Bureau of Prisons sent him to MDC Brooklyn.
In response, the Bureau of Prisons said it had “temporarily paused” sending any defendants convicted of crimes to the jail to serve their sentences. In a statement Tuesday, the agency said 43 people were currently serving sentences in a minimum-security unit at the jail.
What other notable people have been detained at MDC Brooklyn?
Combs is just the latest celebrity inmate to be locked up at MDC Brooklyn, joining a list that includes Maxwell, Kelly, Bankman-Fried and the rapper Fetty Wap.
Other high-profile detainees have included Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli, NXIVM sex cult founder Keith Raniere, former Mexican government official Genaro Garcia Luna and ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez Alvarado.
What happened to New York City's other federal jail?
The Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan closed in 2021 after a slew of problems that came to light after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there two years earlier.
The jail — next to the courthouse where Combs was arraigned — was plagued by lax security, severe staffing shortages and squalid, unsafe conditions including falling concrete, freezing temperatures and busted cells.
People detained at the facility were relocated to MDC Brooklyn or a medium-security prison in Otisville, New York.
What have Combs’ lawyers and prosecutors said?
Combs’ lawyers argued in paperwork seeking his release that the Metropolitan Detention Center is not fit for pretrial detention. They cited recent detainee deaths, and the concerns shared by judges that the jail is no place for anyone to be held.
Asked about keeping a high-profile inmate like Combs locked up, particularly in light of Epstein’s 2019 death, Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “We are concerned with anyone’s safety whenever they are detained prior to trial.”
“I do not draw any sort of connection between Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide and what may or may not happen to any other defendant while they are detained pretrial,” he added.
Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Wednesday that the rapper is being held in MDC Brooklyn's special housing unit, which offers an extra layer of security but can make trial preparation more onerous. He asked that Combs be moved to a New Jersey jail, but a judge said it's up to the Bureau of Prisons to decide.
Is it just MDC Brooklyn, or do all federal prisons have issues?
An ongoing Associated Press investigation has uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons, an agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates, 122 facilities and an annual budget of about $8 billion.
AP reporting has revealed dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies, including inmate assaults and suicides.
In April, the Bureau of Prisons said it was closing its women’s prison in Dublin, California, known as the “rape club,” giving up on attempts to reform the facility after an AP investigation exposed staff-on-inmate sexual abuse.
In July, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the Bureau of Prisons after the AP’s reporting shined a spotlight on the agency’s many flaws. ___
This story has been corrected to remove a reference to Michael Cohen, who served time at a different federal prison facility.
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