New York: As he unsuccessfully fought to keep Sean “Diddy” Combs out of prison Sex trafficking Before his arrest, the music legend’s lawyers presented a long list of horrors at the Brooklyn federal lockup where he was taken: appalling conditions, rampant violence and multiple deaths.
Combs, 54, was sent to Metropolitan Detention Center on Tuesday in Brooklyn — a place he has described as “hell on earth” and an “ongoing tragedy” — after pleading not guilty in a case in which he is accused of physically and sexually abusing women for more than a decade.
This facility is the only Federal Prison The prison, located in New York City, has been plagued by problems since it opened in the 1990s. In recent years, its conditions have gotten so bad that some judges have refused to send people there. The prison 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 government said Bureau of Prisons He added: “We also take staffing and other challenges seriously.” MDC BrooklynA team from the agency is working to fix the problems, including adding permanent correctional and medical staff, resolving more than 700 pending maintenance requests and responding to judges’ concerns.
On Wednesday, a judge denied a request from Combs’ lawyers to allow him to 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 gel:
What is the Metropolitan Detention Center? The Bureau of Prisons opened this facility, known as MDC Brooklyn, as a prison in the early 1990s.
It is used primarily to detain people after arrest who are awaiting trial in federal court in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Other inmates are there to serve short sentences after conviction.
The facility, located in an industrial area on the Brooklyn waterfront, houses about 1,200 detainees, down from 1,600 in January. It has outdoor recreational facilities, a medical unit with examination rooms and a dental room. It has a separate wing for educational programs and the prison 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 of the problems at MDC Brooklyn? Detainees have long complained about rampant violence, terrible conditions, severe understaffing and widespread smuggling of drugs and other contraband, some of which is facilitated by staff. At the same time, they say they are frequently put on lockdown and prevented from leaving their cells to visit, make calls, shower or exercise.
In June, Uriel White, 37, was stabbed to death in prison. A month later, Edwin Cordero, 36, died after being injured in a fight. At least four people in prison have committed suicide in the past three years.
Cordero’s attorney, Andrew Delack, told the New York Times that his client was “the victim of an overcrowded, understaffed and neglected federal prison that is hell on earth.”
At least six MDC Brooklyn employees have been charged with crimes in the past five years. Some were accused of taking bribes or providing contraband items such as drugs, cigarettes and cellphones, according to an Associated Press analysis of arrests involving the agency.
MDC Brooklyn has also come under fire for its crumbling infrastructure and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, a week-long power outage sparked unrest among shivering inmates and raised concerns from federal monitors. In March 2020, the prison had its first federal inmate to test positive for COVID-19.
According to court filings, as of last November, MDC Brooklyn was operating at about 55 percent of its total staffing, which was burdensome for staff and exacerbated safety problems.
What is being done about these problems? Judges and advocates have taken notice, reprimanding the Bureau of Prisons for “dangerous, barbaric conditions” and pressuring the agency to make improvements. Some judges have refused to send defendants to MDC Brooklyn or have given shorter sentences because of the conditions there.
In January, U.S. District Judge Furman took a rare step of allowing Gustavo Chavez, 70, to remain free on bail after he was convicted of drug-related offenses, rather than locking him up in a Brooklyn jail to await sentencing.
“Prosecutors no longer even put up a fight, let alone dispute that the situation is unacceptable,” Furman wrote.
In August, U.S. District Judge Gary Brown said that if the Bureau of Prisons sent a 75-year-old defendant to MDC Brooklyn, he would vacate his nine-month sentence for tax fraud and place him on house arrest.
In response, the Bureau of Prisons said it has “temporarily paused” sending any defendants convicted of crimes to the prison to serve their sentences. In a statement Tuesday, the agency said 43 people are currently serving sentences in the minimum-security unit at the prison.
Who else are some of the other celebrities detained at MDC Brooklyn? Combs is one of the latest celebrity inmates to be held at MDC Brooklyn, joining names like Maxwell, Kelly, Bankman-Fried and rapper Fetty Wap.
Other high-profile detainees include pharma bro Martin Shkreli, NXIVM sex cult founder Keith Raniere, former Mexican government official Genaro Garcia Luna and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado.
What happened to New York City’s second federal prison? The Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan was closed in 2021 after numerous problems were exposed following Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide two years earlier.
The jail — next to the courthouse where Combs was accused — suffered from lax security, severe staffing shortages and dirty, unsafe conditions, including crumbling concrete, freezing temperatures and broken cells.
Those detained at the facility were transferred to MDC Brooklyn or the medium security prison in Otisville, New York.
What have Combs’ attorneys and prosecutors said? Combs’ attorneys argued in paperwork seeking his release that the Metropolitan Detention Center is not suitable for pretrial detention. They cited recent deaths of detainees and concerns expressed by judges that the jail is not an appropriate place to hold anyone.
Asked about keeping a high-profile inmate such as Combs locked up, particularly in light of Epstein’s 2019 death, Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Anytime someone is detained before trial, we’re concerned about their safety.”
“I don’t see any connection whatsoever between Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide and what has happened to any other defendant and their pretrial detention,” he said.
Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said Wednesday that the rapper is being held in MDC Brooklyn’s Special Housing Unit, which provides an extra layer of security but could make trial preparation more difficult. He requested that Combs be transferred to a New Jersey jail, but a judge said it was up to the Bureau of Prisons to decide.
Is this just a problem at MDC Brooklyn, or do all federal prisons face similar problems? An ongoing Associated Press investigation has exposed deep, previously unreported flaws at the Bureau of Prisons, an agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates, 122 facilities and an annual budget of nearly $8 billion.
AP’s reporting has exposed dozens of cases of inmate escapes, persistent violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have made it difficult to respond 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,” after abandoning efforts to reform the prison after an AP investigation revealed sexual abuse by inmates against staff.
In July, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the Bureau of Prisons after AP reporting exposed numerous flaws at the agency.
Combs, 54, was sent to Metropolitan Detention Center on Tuesday in Brooklyn — a place he has described as “hell on earth” and an “ongoing tragedy” — after pleading not guilty in a case in which he is accused of physically and sexually abusing women for more than a decade.
This facility is the only Federal Prison The prison, located in New York City, has been plagued by problems since it opened in the 1990s. In recent years, its conditions have gotten so bad that some judges have refused to send people there. The prison 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 government said Bureau of Prisons He added: “We also take staffing and other challenges seriously.” MDC BrooklynA team from the agency is working to fix the problems, including adding permanent correctional and medical staff, resolving more than 700 pending maintenance requests and responding to judges’ concerns.
On Wednesday, a judge denied a request from Combs’ lawyers to allow him to 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 gel:
What is the Metropolitan Detention Center? The Bureau of Prisons opened this facility, known as MDC Brooklyn, as a prison in the early 1990s.
It is used primarily to detain people after arrest who are awaiting trial in federal court in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Other inmates are there to serve short sentences after conviction.
The facility, located in an industrial area on the Brooklyn waterfront, houses about 1,200 detainees, down from 1,600 in January. It has outdoor recreational facilities, a medical unit with examination rooms and a dental room. It has a separate wing for educational programs and the prison 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 of the problems at MDC Brooklyn? Detainees have long complained about rampant violence, terrible conditions, severe understaffing and widespread smuggling of drugs and other contraband, some of which is facilitated by staff. At the same time, they say they are frequently put on lockdown and prevented from leaving their cells to visit, make calls, shower or exercise.
In June, Uriel White, 37, was stabbed to death in prison. A month later, Edwin Cordero, 36, died after being injured in a fight. At least four people in prison have committed suicide in the past three years.
Cordero’s attorney, Andrew Delack, told the New York Times that his client was “the victim of an overcrowded, understaffed and neglected federal prison that is hell on earth.”
At least six MDC Brooklyn employees have been charged with crimes in the past five years. Some were accused of taking bribes or providing contraband items such as drugs, cigarettes and cellphones, according to an Associated Press analysis of arrests involving the agency.
MDC Brooklyn has also come under fire for its crumbling infrastructure and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, a week-long power outage sparked unrest among shivering inmates and raised concerns from federal monitors. In March 2020, the prison had its first federal inmate to test positive for COVID-19.
According to court filings, as of last November, MDC Brooklyn was operating at about 55 percent of its total staffing, which was burdensome for staff and exacerbated safety problems.
What is being done about these problems? Judges and advocates have taken notice, reprimanding the Bureau of Prisons for “dangerous, barbaric conditions” and pressuring the agency to make improvements. Some judges have refused to send defendants to MDC Brooklyn or have given shorter sentences because of the conditions there.
In January, U.S. District Judge Furman took a rare step of allowing Gustavo Chavez, 70, to remain free on bail after he was convicted of drug-related offenses, rather than locking him up in a Brooklyn jail to await sentencing.
“Prosecutors no longer even put up a fight, let alone dispute that the situation is unacceptable,” Furman wrote.
In August, U.S. District Judge Gary Brown said that if the Bureau of Prisons sent a 75-year-old defendant to MDC Brooklyn, he would vacate his nine-month sentence for tax fraud and place him on house arrest.
In response, the Bureau of Prisons said it has “temporarily paused” sending any defendants convicted of crimes to the prison to serve their sentences. In a statement Tuesday, the agency said 43 people are currently serving sentences in the minimum-security unit at the prison.
Who else are some of the other celebrities detained at MDC Brooklyn? Combs is one of the latest celebrity inmates to be held at MDC Brooklyn, joining names like Maxwell, Kelly, Bankman-Fried and rapper Fetty Wap.
Other high-profile detainees include pharma bro Martin Shkreli, NXIVM sex cult founder Keith Raniere, former Mexican government official Genaro Garcia Luna and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado.
What happened to New York City’s second federal prison? The Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan was closed in 2021 after numerous problems were exposed following Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide two years earlier.
The jail — next to the courthouse where Combs was accused — suffered from lax security, severe staffing shortages and dirty, unsafe conditions, including crumbling concrete, freezing temperatures and broken cells.
Those detained at the facility were transferred to MDC Brooklyn or the medium security prison in Otisville, New York.
What have Combs’ attorneys and prosecutors said? Combs’ attorneys argued in paperwork seeking his release that the Metropolitan Detention Center is not suitable for pretrial detention. They cited recent deaths of detainees and concerns expressed by judges that the jail is not an appropriate place to hold anyone.
Asked about keeping a high-profile inmate such as Combs locked up, particularly in light of Epstein’s 2019 death, Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Anytime someone is detained before trial, we’re concerned about their safety.”
“I don’t see any connection whatsoever between Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide and what has happened to any other defendant and their pretrial detention,” he said.
Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said Wednesday that the rapper is being held in MDC Brooklyn’s Special Housing Unit, which provides an extra layer of security but could make trial preparation more difficult. He requested that Combs be transferred to a New Jersey jail, but a judge said it was up to the Bureau of Prisons to decide.
Is this just a problem at MDC Brooklyn, or do all federal prisons face similar problems? An ongoing Associated Press investigation has exposed deep, previously unreported flaws at the Bureau of Prisons, an agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates, 122 facilities and an annual budget of nearly $8 billion.
AP’s reporting has exposed dozens of cases of inmate escapes, persistent violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have made it difficult to respond 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,” after abandoning efforts to reform the prison after an AP investigation revealed sexual abuse by inmates against staff.
In July, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the Bureau of Prisons after AP reporting exposed numerous flaws at the agency.
