In their failed attempt to prevent Sean “Diddy” Combs from being incarcerated following his arrest for sex trafficking, the music mogul's legal team emphasized the numerous atrocities at the Brooklyn federal detention center to which he was being sent, including dreadful conditions, widespread violence, and several fatalities. Still, Combs, 54, was sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Tuesday — a place that’s been described as “hell on earth” and an “ongoing tragedy” — after pleading not guilty in a case that accuses him of physically and sexually abusing women for more than a decade, The Associated Press reports. The facility, the only federal jail in New York City, has had problems since it opened in the 1990s. Its conditions have been so stark recently that some judges have refused to send people there. The federal Bureau of Prisons said that an agency team is working to fix problems by adding permanent correctional and medical staff, remedying more than 700 backlogged maintenance requests, and answering judges’ concerns.
Combs’ lawyers argued in paperwork seeking his release that the Metropolitan Detention Center is not fit for pretrial detention. They cited recent detainee deaths, and the concerns shared by judges that the jail is no place for anyone to be held. Asked about keeping a high-profile inmate like Combs locked up, particularly in light of Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 suicide, Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “We are concerned with anyone’s safety whenever they are detained prior to trial.” Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Wednesday that the rapper is being held in MDC Brooklyn’s special housing unit, which offers an extra layer of security but can make trial preparation more onerous. He asked that Combs be moved to a New Jersey jail, but a judge said it’s up to the Bureau of Prisons to decide.
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