'Dangerous and barbaric': The Brooklyn jail that has held 'Diddy' Combs and Ghislaine Maxwell
New York's Metropolitan Detention Center has been described as a violent place and unfit for certain inmates.
MDC in Brooklyn, New York City.
Several federal agencies have launched an operation at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York City. According to the AP, the operation at the jail that holds celebrities such as Sean "Diddy" Combs, Sam Bankman-Fried and Ghislaine Maxwell, aims to maintain "a safe environment for both our employees and the inmates housed at MDC Brooklyn."
This news comes on the heels of numerous reports describing the Brooklyn MDC as "dangerous" and "barbaric" in various court rulings and law enforcement documents. An atmosphere of thuggery and appalling living conditions for detainees makes the MDC one of the worst jails on the East Coast.
Diddy tried everything to get out of Brooklyn
The deteriorating situation inside the Brooklyn MDC came to public notoriety when in September, charges were filed against a total of nine inmates at the facility for carrying out violent assaults and abuse against staff and other inmates.
The events occurred between April and August 2023, and include serious stabbings. But they are just the latest episode in a history of incidents affecting New York City's only federal detention center since it opened in the 1990s.
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Perhaps these were the reasons Sean "Diddy" Combs, the rapper who fell from grace after being put on trial for numerous sex crimes, tried to stay out of prison. Combs filed for parole on three separate occasions, even presenting not only his mansion, but also his mother's home as collateral.
This was all to escape prison conditions, where violent criminals are not the only danger. At least six prison staff members at the Brooklyn MDC have been charged with crimes related to their employment in the past five years. Many of these were for participating in the illegal smuggling and violence schemes that exist in the jail.
Prison declared unsuitable for sensitive convicts
However, he ended up on the Brooklyn MDC's intake list, something that immediately alarmed the judges overseeing his case. At trial, it became clear that a prison sentence was warranted given the severity of his tax fraud, the impact on his victimized employees and his somewhat tepid acceptance of responsibility.
Despite this, given the violence, lack of medical care, lack of adequate supervision and "inordinate periods of confinement" at the MDC, along with the defendant's age and state of health, the court ruled that if Brooklyn was where Colucci was to be sent, it was better that the 74-year-old not even go to prison.
Instead, the court went so far as to propose a sentence of house arrest with electronic monitoring.
This was not the only such case. In January, U.S. District Judge Furman took the rare step of allowing Gustavo Chavez, 70, to remain free on bail after his drug conviction, rather than locking him in the Brooklyn jail pending sentencing. "Prosecutors no longer even put up a fight, much less argue that the state of affairs is unacceptable," Furman wrote.
Famous inmates
The Brooklyn detention center has a reputation for holding celebrities or people from the business world. Currently, Combs is not the only big name behind bars at the MDC. In fact, his cellmate is none other than Sam Bankman-Fried, who fell from grace after the bankruptcy of FTX. The fake crypto guru is serving a 25-year sentence on charges of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering.
The Brooklyn MDC also held Ghislaine Maxwell, who was the former partner of New York financier Jeffrey Epstein. Before being transferred to the Tallahassee federal correctional facility, Maxwell spent several months at the MDC.
Another rapper, Jeffrey Atkins, stage name Ja Rule, spent nearly two years locked up at the MDC between 2012 and 2013 for tax evasion. So did R. Kelly, who spent part of his 31-year sentence for various sex offenses at the MDC, before being transferred to Butner Medium Correctional Facility.
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