Inside Sean 'Diddy' Combs' first week behind bars at Brooklyn's notorious MDC
Diddy's first week in prison at Brooklyn's MDC
Sean "Diddy" Combs has spent his first week behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn after being arrested on federal sex trafficking and other charges. FOX 5’s Lisa Evers takes us inside the notorious facility, described as "hell on earth," where Diddy is being held.
NEW YORK - It has been one week since Sean "Diddy" Combs was imprisoned at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, after being arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.
The MDC is a facility often described as "hell on earth," and is far from the glamorous life the hip-hop legend has presented to the public.
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"It's terrible," said Esco, a former MDC detainee speaking to FOX 5's Lisa Evers. "The food is terrible, of course, the inmates are terrible, the guards are terrible, the conditions are terrible, it's just terrible."
Last week, the federal Bureau of Prisons said it would increase staffing to make up for staggering shortfalls at the jail.
Detainees, advocates and judges have raised alarms about "dangerous, barbaric conditions," rampant violence and multiple deaths at the MDC, and some judges have refused to send people to the only federal lockup in the nation’s biggest city.
"Inmates that you're surrounded around in general, a lot of them are brought up on some pretty heavy federal indictments so just in terms of the atmosphere there, it's one no one wants to be in," said criminal defense attorney Phillip Hamilton.
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Combs’ lawyers are pushing to have him moved to a jail in New Jersey, arguing that the Brooklyn jail, known as MDC Brooklyn, is unfit for pretrial detention. Combs, 54, is being kept in the facility’s special housing unit, confined to his cell up to 23 hours a day with around-the-clock monitoring. His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said that's routine for high-profile new arrivals.
Lockdown at MDC, according to Hamilton, could hinder Combs' ability to effectively prepare for his defense.
"In terms of fighting their case it makes it all the more difficult," Hamilton explained. "Because now, in terms of you being able to communicate with your attorney, you are at the mercy of what's going on with respect to the facility. Is it on lockdown? Is the facility letting visitors in?"
MDC Brooklyn has been plagued by problems since it opened in the 1990s. Part of the facility, near the waterfront in the borough’s Sunset Park neighborhood, is a century-old former Navy warehouse. The Bureau of Prisons closed its other New York City jail, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, in 2021 after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there shone a spotlight on lax security, crumbling infrastructure and dangerous, squalid conditions.
MDC Brooklyn detainees have long complained about frequent violence, horrific 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 during which they've been barred from leaving their cells for visits, calls, showers or exercise.
MDC Brooklyn isn’t the only federal prison facility beset by staffing and other problems.
The Bureau of Prisons has struggled to retain correctional officers at its prisons and jails across the U.S. — but the problem has been even more pronounced in New York City, in part because of city's high cost of living and starting salaries that are far lower than other law enforcement agencies.
In the last few years, MDC Brooklyn officers have been forced to work repeated overtime shifts because of staffing shortages, raising safety concerns. To stanch the departure of experience staff, the agency has increased retention bonuses to hike salaries for workers at the Brooklyn jail.
Still, problems have persisted. 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 to inmates such as drugs, cigarettes, and cellphones, according to an AP analysis of agency-related arrests.
In the last few months, inmates have also claimed that food served at the jail contained maggots. The senior Bureau of Prisons official who spoke to the AP about the Urgent Action Team’s work said all food at the jail was evaluated after that claim and no maggots were found. An assistant warden also taste tests meals before they are served, the official said.
Written with the Associated Press.