Normally, U.S. District Judge Gary J. Brown would have sent the man to the local federal prison to serve 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 infamous prison, commonly known as MDC, is once again in the spotlight due to its newest high-profile inmate. Last week, a The New York judge ordered Sean “Diddy” Combs be held there after the Bundestag Prosecutors accused him of sex trafficking, Blackmail and transport for prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.

High-profile defendants like Mr. Combs sometimes receive special protection when they are incarcerated, and the music mogul is reportedly in an area of ​​MDC Brooklyn for inmates who need special protection.

According to local media reports, Mr. Combs shares a dormitory-style room there with cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, who once ran a multibillion-dollar company but was convicted of multiple counts of fraud in March.

And because it’s the only federal prison in New York City that handles many high-profile cases, the two are just the latest in an extensive list of notable names to pass through the facility’s doors. This list contains the Rapper R Kelly and Jeffrey Epstein Associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

But for many of MDC Brooklyn’s current 1,200 inmates, it’s a different story.

In a ruling in August, Judge Brown cited several cases of colleagues who had been hesitant to send defendants and convicts to prison because of the conditions.

“Claims of inadequate supervision, rampant abuses and lack of medical care are supported by a growing body of evidence, with some cases irrefutable,” he said.

“There is chaos and uncontrolled violence,” Judge Brown added. His verdict concerned the case of a defendant who was stabbed multiple times but said he had not received medical attention and was instead locked in his cell for 25 days. The judge cited staffing shortages and deteriorating conditions following the Covid pandemic, which forced the prison’s closure.

If the Bureau of Prisons decided to send the defendant in the tax fraud case to MDC, it would expunge the man’s sentence, the judge wrote.

MDC Brooklyn opened in the 1990s and its editions go back years.

In 2019, an electrical fire caused a power outage in the middle of winter, plunging the facility into darkness and freezing conditions.

And in June 2020, an inmate, Jamel Floyd, died after being pepper-sprayed by correctional officers. His family sued the federal government over his death. A Justice Department review concluded there was “insufficient evidence” that prison authorities “engaged in maladministrative conduct” but acknowledged that the use of pepper spray violated policy.

Judge Brown is not the only judge to harshly criticize the facility.

In January, Judge Jesse Furman of Federal District Court in Manhattan refused to send a man there who had pleaded guilty in a drug case because the condition was dangerous.

After initially allowing the man, Gustavo Chavez, to await his supervised release, Judge Furman ultimately allowed him to bypass the MDC and report directly to prison, where he would serve his sentence.

In July, 36-year-old Edwin Cordero died after being injured during a fight while serving his sentence at the MDC.

“The squalid conditions are compounded by this kind of terrible confluence of circumstances,” Andrew Dalack, the lawyer for Mr. Cordero and Mr. Chavez, told the BBC. “Overcrowding, staff shortages and a lack of political will to improve conditions.”

As a Brooklyn-based public defender, Mr. Dalack has represented numerous clients referred to MDC. “It’s a really scary place,” he said.

After Mr. Cordero’s death, U.S. Congressman Dan Goldman, who represents the district where the Brooklyn facility is located, called for greater federal oversight to address “chronic staffing shortages, persistent solitary confinement and widespread violence.”

The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which manages the facility, said in a statement that it “takes seriously our duty to protect those entrusted to our care and ensure the safety of correctional staff and the community.”

A spokesman for the office noted the establishment of an urgent action team to address problems at the MDC, as well as ongoing efforts to hire more staff and clear a backlog of maintenance requests.

A February 2024 report by the Federal Defenders of New York, where Mr. Dalack works, attributed overcrowding problems to the closure troubled sister facility in Manhattan, which the government closed in 2021 – two years later Jeffrey Epstein’s death in custody in the facility.

They also said the presence of drugs and other contraband contributed to the dangerous atmosphere at the facility.

The federal facility houses people convicted of crimes, but a significant portion of the population there is awaiting trial in the city’s federal courts and has yet to be found innocent or guilty.

The conditions placed strain on Mr. Dalack’s clients, who were already at risk of more permanent incarceration.

“It should not be the case that, while your life and your freedom are at stake, you have to be completely stripped of your humanity,” he said. “MDC Brooklyn has a way of really destroying people and making them feel like they’re no longer human.”