Bureau of Prisons says it’s adding staff and making fixes at jail where Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is held

NEW YORK — The federal Bureau of Prisons says it has expanded staffing in recent months to help make up for dire prison shortages. New York City’s troubled prison where Sean “Diddy” Combs is awaiting trial after pleading not guilty Tuesday on sex trafficking charges.

The agency’s urge to solve the problem the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn comes as inmates, lawyers and judges continue to warn of “dangerous, barbaric conditions,” rampant violence and multiple deaths. Some judges have refused to send people to the prison, the only federal facility in the nation’s largest city.

Combs’ lawyers are pushing for him to be transferred to a prison in New Jersey, arguing that the Brooklyn jail, known as MDC Brooklyn, is not designed for pretrial detention. Combs, 54, is being held in the facility’s special housing unit, confined to his cell up to 23 hours a day with 24-hour surveillance. His attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said that is routine for high-profile new arrivals.

MDC Brooklyn is getting some much-needed attention thanks to a group of senior Bureau of Prisons officials known as the Urgent Action Team, who are focused on de-staffing the facility and keeping it in good working order.

The agency said Friday it has increased the prison’s staffing by about 20%, bringing the total number of employees to 469. However, there are still 157 vacancies. The new hires include correctional officers and medical staff. Before the increase, the facility was operating at about 55% of its full workforce, according to court documents.

At the same time, the number of inmates at the facility has fallen from about 1,600 at the beginning of the year to about 1,200 as of Friday.

A senior Bureau of Prisons official told The Associated Press that members of the Urgent Action Team have made repeated visits to MDC Brooklyn and meet weekly to address problems at the prison. Top agency leaders are giving the prison “sustained attention” and “sustained leadership focus” to mitigate problems at the prison, the official said.

The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

In addition to hiring, the Bureau of Prisons says it has addressed a significant maintenance backlog at the Brooklyn jail. In four weeks this spring, agency workers completed more than 800 work orders for repairs and infrastructure improvements. They included electrical and plumbing upgrades and repairs to food service and heating and air conditioning systems.

MDC Brooklyn has been plagued by problems since it opened in the 1990s. Part of the facility, near the waterfront in the borough’s Sunset Park neighborhood, is a century-old former Navy warehouse. The Bureau of Prisons closed its other New York City prison, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, in 2021 after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there drew attention to lax security, crumbling infrastructure and dangerous, dirty conditions.

Inmates at MDC Brooklyn have long complained about frequent violence, horrific conditions, severe understaffing and the widespread smuggling of drugs and other contraband, some of it facilitated by employees. At the same time, they say they have faced regular lockdowns, during which they are not allowed to leave their cells for visits, phone calls, showers or exercise.

MDC Brooklyn is not the only federal prison struggling with staffing and other problems.

The Bureau of Prisons has struggled to retain prison staff in its prisons across the U.S. But the problem is even worse in New York City, in part because of the high cost of living and starting salaries that are much lower than in other law enforcement agencies.

In recent years, MDC Brooklyn officers have been forced to work repeated overtime due to staffing shortages, leading to safety concerns. To combat the departure of experienced staff, the agency has increased retention bonuses to boost salaries for employees at the Brooklyn jail.

Still, problems persist. At least six MDC Brooklyn employees have been charged with crimes in the past five years. Some were accused of accepting bribes or providing inmates with contraband, such as drugs, cigarettes and cellphones, according to an AP analysis of arrests linked to the agency.

In recent months, prisoners have also alleged that food served at the prison contained maggots. The senior Bureau of Prisons official who spoke to the AP about the Urgent Action Team’s work said that all food at the prison was evaluated after that allegation and no maggots were found. An assistant warden also tastes meals before they are served, the official said.

The agency’s focus on fixing MDC Brooklyn comes amid mounting congressional scrutiny and a new law overhauling oversight of the troubled federal prison system. Combs’ detention at MDC Brooklyn has only heightened public interest.

A ongoing AP investigation has exposed serious, previously unreported deficiencies within the Bureau of Prisons, an agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates, 122 facilities and an annual budget of approximately $8 billion.

It has emerged from AP reporting dozens of escapeschronic violence, deaths and serious staff shortage who have hampered emergency responsesincluding attacks on prisoners and suicides.

In April, the Bureau of Prisons announced it would close its women’s prison in Dublin, California. known as the “rape club”, Abandoning efforts to reform the facility after an AP investigation revealed sexual abuse of inmates by staff.

In July, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that establishes a new oversight model for the Bureau of Prisons, including an independent ombudsman who will handle and investigate complaints and risk-based inspections by the Justice Department’s inspector general of all 122 federal prisons.