Kayla Epstein-BBC News, New York
Ordinarily, US District Judge Gary J Brown would have sent the man to the local federal jail to serve out his sentence for tax fraud.
But one thing stopped him: “The dangerous, barbaric conditions that have existed for some time at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.”
The notorious jail, known as MDC, is again in the spotlight due to its latest celebrity detainee. Last week, a New York judge ordered Sean “Diddy” Combs to be held thereafter federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.
High-profile defendants like Mr Combs sometimes receive special protection when jailed, and the music mogul is reported to be in a section of MDC Brooklyn for detainees who require special protection.
Mr Combs is, according to local media reports, sharing a dormitory-style room there with the cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, who once ran a company worth billions but was convicted on multiple counts of fraud in March.
And because it is the only federal jail in New York City, where many high-profile cases are processed, the pair are just the latest in an extensive list of notable names to have passed through the facility’s doors. That list includes the rapper R Kelly and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
But it’s a different story for many of MDC Brooklyn’s 1,200 current inmates.
