After being indicted on a number of charges, including sex trafficking, in mid-September, Sean Combs ( Diddy ) was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, USA, awaiting trial. Despite agreeing to pay a large sum of money, Diddy was denied bail by a judge.
Former Married at First Sight star Timothy Smith, based on his experience serving time in a US federal prison, said Diddy’s detention conditions were terrible.
According to Smith, some people might think Diddy uses his money and status in exchange for some special treatment, but the reality is much more dire.
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“His money and wealth don’t bring any benefits. In the federal system, conditions are very restrictive. You don’t get extra privileges because you’re rich. You’re allowed a few basic items like a suit and trainers from the management, but that’s it. They’ll raid you and if you try to hoard, they’ll take everything ,” Smith told Daily Mail Australia .
Smith added that Diddy was kept in the management unit, where he had no contact with other prisoners. There was no TV or radio, and instead, prisoners were given a Bible and a different book each week.
Even when transferred to the regular area, conditions were not much better, with hundreds of people but only a few TVs, divided by race.
Diddy is also said to have limited communication with the outside world.
“You only get 300 minutes of phone calls a month. So if you use the phone for 30 minutes a day, after 10 days, you can’t use the phone for the next 20 days. Sometimes you run out of minutes in the first week and you’re just talking to yourself… His wealth doesn’t help him here ,” the former TV star stressed.
Smith pointed out that once the federal government decides to prosecute someone, they have solid evidence. Therefore, the man in his 60s advised Diddy to accept reality because there is no way to negotiate out of federal charges.
“If you think you can beat them, they beat you right back. In my experience, I’ve had three people take their cases to trial thinking they could win, and they ended up getting a much heavier sentence than they would have gotten if they had signed a plea deal ,” Smith concluded.
Timothy Smith was arrested for drug trafficking in 2006. The former TV personality was caught by US Customs after transporting marijuana across the Canada-US border by plane. Smith was later sentenced to a year in prison.
Before Smith, a former inmate named Larry Levine revealed to NewsNation that the food at the Metropolitan Detention Center was full of carbohydrates and “extremely bland.” In addition to mold, Diddy’s food was often cold because he was held in the last food area. Not only that, the hip-hop mogul also faced a case of food poisoning.
The Daily Beast previously reported that the Metropolitan Detention Center has been chronically understaffed, experiencing frequent lockdowns, outbreaks of violence, delays in accessing medical care, and a series of suicides and deaths.
In his bail application, Diddy’s attorneys stated: “Several courts in the county have recognized that conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center are not suitable for pretrial detention.”
The New York Times reported that the lawyer for Edwin Cordero, the inmate who died after a prison fight, had complained about the deplorable environment his client faced in a letter to a federal judge in June. The lawyer described the federal prison as overcrowded, understaffed and neglected, like a living hell.
