Combs held at understaffed, violent Brooklyn jail pre-sentencing

4/7/2025 6:20

Despite being found not

guilty on the most serious counts at his sex trafficking trial,

Sean "Diddy" Combs will spend months awaiting sentencing at a

notoriously understaffed and violent Brooklyn jail where the

music mogul has lived through nearly ten months of lockdowns and

fights.

Combs, 55, has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center

since his September 2024 arrest. The facility, which has also

held convicted sex traffickers like British socialite Ghislaine

Maxwell and rhythm and blues singer R. Kelly, is a far cry from

the luxurious Los Angeles and Miami mansions Combs called home

until last year.



After the verdict was read on Wednesday, Combs' lawyers

asked U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian to release him on $1

million bond ahead of his sentencing, expected to take place by

October.



"I understand that you don't, that Mr. Combs does not want

to go back to the MDC," the judge said. Combs shook his head.



His hopes of returning to one of those homes and the embrace

of his family after being cleared of the more serious charges

were soon dashed. The judge denied Combs' request for bail,

citing evidence of his violent behavior presented during the

trial.

In recent years, MDC has been plagued by persistent staffing

shortages, power outages and maggots in inmates' food. Two weeks

after Combs' arrest, prosecutors announced criminal charges

against nine MDC inmates for crimes including assault, attempted

murder and murder at the facility in the months before Combs

arrived.

In January of last year, a federal judge in Manhattan declined

to order a man charged with drug crimes detained pending trial

at the MDC, calling the conditions there an "ongoing tragedy."

Last August, another judge said he would convert an older

defendant's nine-month jail term to home incarceration if he

were sent to MDC, citing the jail's "dangerous, barbaric

conditions."



The U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which operates MDC, said in a

statement it was engaged in "intensive efforts to improve

conditions at MDC Brooklyn." The agency said it confiscated

drugs, weapons and other contraband during a multi-day sweep of

the jail last October and November.



During the eight-week trial, U.S. Marshals transported

Combs to and from the courthouse in Lower Manhattan each day

from the facility in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood, which

has also housed former cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam

Bankman-Fried and Luigi Mangione, accused of killing a health

insurance executive.



Bankman-Fried has since been moved to a low-security prison

in California and is appealing his fraud conviction and 25-year

sentence. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

A jury found Combs not guilty on Wednesday on sex trafficking

and racketeering charges, sparing him a potential life sentence,

but convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in

prostitution that could land him in prison for several years. He

had pleaded not guilty to all charges.



Combs' defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo said in court on

Wednesday that Combs had been housed in "a very difficult part

of the MDC" where there have been fights. His lawyer Alexandra

Shapiro said in a November 2024 court filing that frequent

lockdowns at the facility had impaired Combs' ability to prepare

for trial.



On Wednesday, Combs' lawyers praised MDC staff, who they

said had facilitated their access to him during the trial.



"Despite the terrible conditions at the MDC, I want to thank

the good people who work there," defense lawyer Teny Geragos

told reporters after the verdict.