Insights into his life behind bars (exclusive)

On Friday morning, September 20, Sean “Diddy” Combs – now known to the Bureau of Prisons as registry number 37452-054 – was served a breakfast of cereal, fruit, and a breakfast cake at 6:00 a.m.

The day before, multiple sources confirmed to PEOPLE that Combs was placed on suicide watch for organized crime and sex crimes charges during his first few days in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He has pleaded not guilty.

His lawyers told PEOPLE he is “strong, healthy and focused on his defense.” In a statement Friday, they added: “He is committed to fighting this case and has complete confidence in his legal team and in the truth.”

Marc Agnifilo and Teny R. Geragos, representing the singer, wrote in a bail motion that was denied by two Manhattan judges earlier this week that the Brooklyn detention center was “not suitable for pretrial detention” and described the conditions there as “appalling.”

Cameron Lindsay, a retired MDC-Brooklyn director and corrections expert, tells PEOPLE the rapper has a long road ahead of him at the Brooklyn facility.

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“His enormous celebrity status and allegations of violence against women make him a very attractive target for attack,” says Lindsay. “And in the subculture – in the world of prisons and detention centers – it would be an honor to kill someone like him.”

The former director calls the facility “barren” and “cold” and adds: “Everything is planned. This is no life.”

The rapper has no access to the Internet and spends his free time outdoors in an enclosed area, Lindsay said.

The new surroundings appear to represent a drastic departure from the music mogul's longtime celebrity life, complete with a $48 million residence and a private plane that his lawyers told the court at his arraignment on Tuesday, September 17, he had been trying to sell.

Scott Taylor, a Bureau of Prisons spokesman who declined to confirm Combs' exact housing specifications to PEOPLE, citing “privacy, security and public order reasons,” confirms that Combs, like the facility's other 1,217 inmates since Friday, will be awakened at 6 a.m. and his bed will be made by 7:30 a.m.

Additionally, federal prisoners are required to “submit an official inmate count at least five times in each 24-hour period” and “stand bedside” for some of these checks, according to the 55-page Inmate Admission and Orientation Manual that Combs is believed to have received in paper form when he was admitted to the facility.

On weekdays, lunch is served at 11:00 am and dinner is served at 4:00 pm according to the counting manual. (Slightly shifted times apply on weekends and holidays.)

R&B singer R. Kelly was housed at MDC-Brooklyn until he was convicted of sex crimes in New York's Eastern District Court in 2021. His attorney, Nicole Blank Becker, tells PEOPLE that guards took advantage of his celebrity status and forced him to sing.

In a telephone interview, Blank Becker described Kelly's time at the Brooklyn facility as “mentally crippling” and “one of the worst experiences I've ever heard of.”

“If Diddy has to go through something that I know R. Kelly went through, it's not going to bode well,” Blank Becker said, adding that she believes prison is “not safe at all.”

“Honestly, we were worried every day whether R. Kelly was still alive or not,” she says, adding: “This is inhumane, a whole different world. I mean, grown men cry.”

In a statement to PEOPLE, Taylor said the Federal Bureau of Prisons “takes seriously its duty to protect the individuals entrusted to our care and to ensure the safety of correctional personnel and the community.”

Recognizing the “staffing and other challenges at MDC Brooklyn” — staffing is currently at about 76 percent, he said — an emergency response team has been created “to look holistically at the challenges at MDC Brooklyn.” That includes increasing the permanent staff of correctional officers and medical personnel and addressing over 700 overdue maintenance requests.

• Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner and Danielle Bacher