NEW YORK– An interagency operation is underway at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, federal prison officials say.
The New York City jail does currently housing Sean “Diddy” Combs on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Other high-profile prisoners, from R Kelly Unpleasant Sam Bankman-Friedhave been held there over the years.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons told CBS News in a statement that the operation was “intended to achieve our shared goal of maintaining a safe environment for both our employees and the incarcerated individuals housed at MDC Brooklyn.”
The agency added that there is no active threat at the facility.
The agency worked with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of the Inspector General and other law enforcement agencies on the cleanup.
MDC Brooklyn has a long history of complaints
The operation comes at a time when MDC faces increasing scrutiny of deaths, violence and dire conditions. The Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice have been pushing to fix the problems and hold perpetrators accountable.
Last month, nine inmates were charged in a series of attacks on the troubled prison. Federal prosecutors shared serious safety and security concerns, including two inmates being stabbed to death and a correctional officer shooting at a car during an unauthorized pursuit.
MDC is the only federal prison in the city since MCC New York Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide — closed in 2021. The waterfront industrial complex is home to 1,200 people, mostly those arrested and awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
MDC inmates previously won a $10 million class action settlement due to frigid conditions during an eight-day blackout in 2019.
Kelly sued the prison for wrongfully putting him on suicide watch after his conviction, and Bankman-Fried’s attorney said he survived on bread, water and peanut butter while there because the prison did not accommodate his requests for vegan to eat.
Yes Rule too spent a short time at MDC Brooklyn on weapons charges, and the Rev. Al Sharpton went on a hunger strike while serving a 90-day prison sentence in 2001 for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of Puerto Rico’s Vieques Island.
Stay with CBS News New York for the latest updates on this developing story.
