close
close

Association-anemone

Bite-sized brilliance in every update

Feds launch operation at Metropolitan Detention Center – NBC New York
asane

Feds launch operation at Metropolitan Detention Center – NBC New York

Investigators from various federal agencies launched an “interagency operation” on Monday at the troubled New York prison, where Sean “Diddy” Combs is owned.

Investigators from the Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department’s office of inspector general and other law enforcement agencies arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Monday, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The law enforcement operation is “designed to achieve our shared goal of maintaining a safe environment for both our employees and the incarcerated individuals housed at MDC Brooklyn,” the agency said. Jail officials declined to provide specific details about the operation Monday morning.

But the move comes as the prison faces increasing scrutiny over appalling conditions, rampant violence and multiple deaths, and amid efforts by the Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons to fix problems at the prison and pull to the responsibility of the perpetrators.

Last month, federal prosecutors charged nine inmates in connection with a series of attacks from April to August at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the only federal prison in New York City. The allegations made public last month detailed serious safety and security issues at the prison, including allegations after two inmates were stabbed to death and another was stabbed in the spine with a makeshift ice pick. A corrections officer was also accused of shooting into a car during an unlicensed high-speed chase.

The criminal charges provided a window into the violence and dysfunction that plagued the prison, which houses about 1,200 people, including Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

In a statement Monday, the Bureau of Prisons said its operation in Brooklyn was pre-planned and there was “no active threat.”

The agency said it would not release further details about what exactly investigators were doing there until Monday until the operation was completed “in an effort to maintain the safety and security of all personnel within the facility and the integrity of this operation.”

The facility, located in an industrial area on the Brooklyn waterfront, has about 1,200 inmates, down from more than 1,600 in January. It is primarily used for the post-arrest detention of people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Other inmates are there to serve short sentences after convictions.

Inmates at the Brooklyn prison have long complained of rampant violence, appalling conditions, severe understaffing and widespread drug and other contraband, some of which is facilitated by employees. At the same time, they say they were subjected to frequent lockdowns and were prohibited from leaving their cells for visits, phone calls, showers or exercise.