P Diddy will be housed in pretrial detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York after being denied bail following his sex trafficking charges.
Diddy, 54, real name Sean Combs, pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges on Tuesday, with his lawyers offering $50million (£38m) for bail and in-home detention. However, Judge Tarnofsky ordered that the Tell Me star be ‘detained’ in a jail, described as ‘hell on earth’.
The MDC holds around 1,600 inmates, all but a few dozen awaiting trial. It has been New York City’s primary federal detention centre since 2021, when the Bureau of Prisons closed Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center-where disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein, died-over the appalling conditions inside.
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Straddling the East River, the MDC in Brooklyn, which previously housed fellow disgraced rapper, R.Kelly – has similarly been plagued by reports of constant lockdowns, outbreaks of violence and a rash of stabbings.
Combs’ lawyers acknowledged as much in a motion for bail filed earlier on Tuesday, noting that ‘several courts in this District have recognized that the conditions at Metropolitan Detention Center are not fit for pre-trial detention’.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“Just earlier this summer, an inmate was murdered,” they wrote. “At least four inmates have died by suicide there in the past three years. Stabbings at least a couple of times a week’
On June 7, a man named Uriel Whyte, who’d been awaiting trial on gun charges for more than two years, was stabbed to death inside the MDC. Just over a month later, a second man, Edwin Cordero, died after being injured in a jail fight.
“It’s very violent,” an inmate named Eli told Spectrum News NY1 after Whyte’s death. “There’s stabbings, there’s stabbings at least a couple times a week.”
Cockroach infestations
Inmates and their lawyers have also claimed they found cockroaches on their food and mould in the showers, and in a number of recent legal cases, conditions at the prison were describes as ‘dreadful,’ ‘longstanding,’ ‘dirty,’ ‘inhuman’ and an ‘ongoing tragedy,’ Combs’ attorneys argued.
Near freezing temperatures
In February 2019, a fire reportedly cut off power and heat to parts of the jail and inmates were trapped in near freezing temperatures in the dark.
(Image: REUTERS)
Inmates inside the jail at the time included Nxivm sex-cult leader Keith Raniere and accused jewellery thief Damir Pejcinovic, as well as MS-13 gang members and mafiosos.
At the time, Deirdre von Dornum, who oversees the Federal Defenders’ Brooklyn team told press that inmates had wrapped themselves ‘head to toe in towels and blankets’.
The crisis came to a head with protesters gathering outside the facility, where inmates banged on the walls of the jail and flashed nightlights in a plea for help.
Overflowing toilets
Ghislaine Maxwell had been held at the facility in 2021 after being charged with crimes of enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls, related to her association with Epstein. While behind bars her lawyers complained she was underfed, losing her hair, given meals with plastic melted into the food, having to drink contaminated water and could smell overflowing toilets.
(Image: Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
She also claimed that correctional officers were physically abusing her, holding her in ‘defacto solitary confinement,’ keeping her awake with flashlights and subjected her to constant humiliating searches.
In a letter seen by Insider, her attorney Bobbi C. Sternheim wrote: “Cockroaches and rodents are plentiful and glue tracks have been placed in Ms. Maxwell’s day area to help remediate the problem. The worst part is there’s no real outdoors space. It’s just a place to warehouse human beings.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
