A second judge refused to grant bail Sean “Diddy” Combs was released Wednesday and could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial on sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, including singer R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, fallen cryptocurrency tycoonRapper Ja Rule — and even Al Sharpton spent a brief stint there — were held in the same federal detention center.
Known for its horrific conditions (inmates won a $10 million class-action settlement after enduring freezing conditions during an eight-day power outage in 2019), the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
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Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility. U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York recently said the detention center had “dangerous and barbaric conditions.” Two inmates have been stabbed to death in recent months, and several corrections officers have been convicted of smuggling contraband and corruption.
Combs joins a list of high-profile figures who have landed at MDC Brooklyn, in part because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrific conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among prison staff provided Epstein with opportunities to kill himself, a subsequent investigation by the federal watchdog found.
Kelly sued The federal detention center was convicted in 2022 of wrongly placing him on suicide watch after his conviction. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he was not suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 of racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting people across state lines for the purpose of prostitution.
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Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter while at MDC Brooklyn, his lawyer said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “meat diet” despite requests for vegan meals.
Ja Rule stayed at MDC Brooklyn He was briefly detained before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal firearm possession. He spent most of his time in prison in a New York state prison.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike to protest the U.S. Navy’s bombing of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken to custody Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday, he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation for the purpose of prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for trial where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
Federal Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued that the hip-hop mogul, accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to cover up his alleged abuse of women, poses a flight risk and an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place.”
Alex Sundby contributed to this report.
