Sean “Diddy” Combs spent the night locked up at the notorious Brooklyn Federal Penitentiary, which has long been plagued by rumors of “barbaric” and “reprehensible” conditions for inmates, including notorious sexual abusers R. Kelly and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Combs, 54, was ordered held without bail on sex trafficking and extortion charges and was transported to the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park late Tuesday.
The embattled hip-hop mogul is expected to remain in custody there ahead of a hearing scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Manhattan federal court, where he is expected to appeal the decision to continue his detention.
The prison itself has come under increased scrutiny in recent years after a series of complaints about violent inmate attacks and poor living conditions, including maggot-infested food, filthy cells and power outages.
The facility's conditions came into the spotlight during the sex trafficking trial of the late Jeffrey Epstein's notorious prostitute, Maxwell, when her lawyer slammed it in court papers as “reprehensible and totally inadequate.”
The lawyers argued that prison conditions are comparable to those experienced by fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 film “Silence of the Lambs.”
Epstein's madam also complained that during her two years at MDC, she had to use toilets with open sewer pipes and where rats were running around, and that she had to eat rotten, maggot-infested food.
Department of Justice
Department of Justice
Meanwhile, in 2019, an electrical fire caused the facility's heating and lighting to fail, forcing inmates to endure sub-freezing temperatures for about a week.
The violent federal prison was once again in the spotlight early last year after allegations emerged that staff had “covered up” a knife attack on an inmate.
What we know about the allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs
The facility, which houses pretrial detainees and inmates serving short-term federal sentences, currently houses approximately 1,700 inmates, with a reported capacity of closer to 3,000.
Combs joins a long list of other celebrities held at the prison, including R. Kelly and Fetty Wap.
Combs' detention came after he pleaded not guilty to three counts of an indictment accusing him of running a depraved crime empire that included blackmailing women and forcing them to take part in drug-fueled sex shows for more than a decade.
Daniel William McKnight
Prosecutors described the Bad Boy Records founder as a “habitual abuser and habitual disruptor” and sought to keep him in custody pending trial.
Combs was arrested late Monday at a New York City hotel on charges of organized criminal conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation for the purpose of prostitution.
