Violence, misery and death: NPR

NEW YORK — As they fought unsuccessfully to keep Sean “Diddy” Combs out of prison after his arrest on sex trafficking charges, the music mogul's lawyers described a litany of horrors at the Brooklyn federal prison where he was scheduled to be sent: appalling conditions, rampant violence and multiple deaths.

Combs, 54, was booked into Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center on Tuesday – a place described as “hell on earth” and “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.

The facility, the only federal prison in New York City, has been plagued by problems since it opened in the 1990s. In recent years, conditions there have been so bad 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 the staffing and other challenges at MDC Brooklyn very seriously.” An agency team is working to resolve the problems, including by hiring permanent correctional and medical staff, processing more than 700 overdue maintenance requests and answering questions from judges.

A judge on Wednesday rejected a request by Combs' lawyers to keep him under house arrest at his $48 million mansion on an island in Miami Beach, Florida, to await his trial.

What is the Metropolitan Detention Center?

The Bureau of Prisons opened the facility, known as MDC Brooklyn, as a prison in the early 1990s.

It is used primarily to hold people awaiting trial in federal court in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Other inmates must serve short sentences there after their conviction.

The facility, located in an industrial area on Brooklyn's waterfront, currently houses about 1,200 inmates, up from more than 1,600 in January. It has outdoor recreation facilities, a medical center with examination rooms, and a dentist's office. There is a separate wing for educational programs and the prison library.

The Bureau of Prisons closed its dilapidated Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan in 2021, making MDC Brooklyn its only facility in the nation's largest city.

What are the problems with MDC Brooklyn?

Inmates have long complained of rampant violence, horrific conditions, severe staff shortages and widespread smuggling of drugs and other contraband, some of which is facilitated by staff. At the same time, they report being frequently locked up and not allowed to leave their cells for visits, phone calls, showers or exercise.

In June, 37-year-old Uriel Whyte was stabbed to death in prison. A month later, 36-year-old Edwin Cordero died after being injured in a fight. At least four inmates at the prison have committed suicide in the past three years.

Cordero's lawyer, Andrew Dalack, told the New York Times that his client was simply 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 over the past five years, with some accused of accepting bribes or selling contraband such as drugs, cigarettes and cell phones, according to an Associated Press analysis of arrests related to the agency.

MDC Brooklyn has also come under fire for its response to crippling infrastructure failures and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, a week-long power outage sparked unrest among freezing inmates and raised concerns among federal regulators. In March 2020, the prison saw its first federal inmate test positive for COVID-19.

According to court documents, MDC Brooklyn was only 55 percent staffed last November, placing a great strain on employees and exacerbating safety problems.

What is being done about these problems?

Judges and lawyers have taken note and have sharply criticized the prison department for “dangerous, barbaric conditions” and urged the department to improve. Some judges have refrained from sending defendants to MDC Brooklyn because of the conditions there or have imposed shorter sentences on them.

In January, U.S. District Judge Furman took the unusual step of releasing 70-year-old Gustavo Chavez on bail after his conviction on drug charges rather than locking him up in Brooklyn Jail pending sentencing.

“Prosecutors no longer even resist, let alone deny, that the situation is unacceptable,” Furman wrote.

In August, U.S. District Judge Gary Brown said he would vacate a 75-year-old defendant's nine-month prison sentence for tax fraud and place him under house arrest if the Department of Corrections transferred him to MDC Brooklyn.

In response, the Bureau of Prisons said it had “temporarily suspended” the detention of convicted defendants. In a statement on Tuesday, it said 43 people were currently serving their sentences in a minimum security unit of the prison.

What other famous people were held at MDC Brooklyn?

Combs is just the latest high-profile inmate to be incarcerated at MDC Brooklyn, joining a list that already includes Maxwell, Kelly, Bankman-Fried and rapper Fetty Wap.

Other prominent inmates included pharmaceutical bro Martin Shkreli, NXIVM sex cult founder Keith Raniere, former Mexican government official Genaro Garcia Luna and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez Alvarado.

The Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan was closed in 2021 after a series of problems came to light following Jeffrey Epstein's suicide there two years earlier.

The prison – next to the courthouse where Combs was tried – suffered from lax security, severe staff shortages and dirty, unsafe conditions that included falling concrete, freezing temperatures and broken cells.

Those detained at the facility were transferred to MDC Brooklyn or a medium security prison in Otisville, New York.

What did Combs' lawyers and prosecutors say?

Combs' lawyers argued in documents seeking his release that the Metropolitan Detention Center was not appropriate for pretrial detention, citing recent inmate deaths and concerns shared by judges that prison was no place to hold anyone.

When asked why a high-profile inmate like Combs should remain incarcerated, especially in light of Epstein's death in 2019, Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “We are concerned about the safety of anyone detained prior to trial.”

“I make no connection whatsoever between Jeffrey Epstein's suicide and what may or may not happen to other defendants while in custody,” he added.

Combs' attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said Wednesday that the rapper is being held in a special housing unit at MDC Brooklyn, which provides extra security but could make trial preparations more cumbersome. He called for Combs to be transferred to a New Jersey prison, but a judge said the decision rests with the Bureau of Prisons.

Is this just an issue at MDC Brooklyn or are there problems at all federal prisons?

An ongoing Associated Press investigation has uncovered deep, previously unreported deficiencies at 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 reports uncovered dozens of outbreaks, chronic violence, deaths and severe staff shortages that hampered response to emergencies, including assaults and inmate suicides.

In April, the Bureau of Prisons announced it would close its women's prison in Dublin, California, known as the “Rape Club,” abandoning efforts to reform the facility after an AP investigation revealed sexual abuse of inmates by staff.

In July, President Joe Biden signed legislation to strengthen oversight of the Bureau of Prisons after AP reporting revealed the agency's numerous shortcomings.