\n<\/p>\n
Sean Combs\u2019s hair and beard, once jet black, are gray now. Hair dye is not allowed at the Metropolitan Detention Center.<\/p>\n
Breakfast is at 7 a.m. The exercise room has yoga mats and a small basketball hoop. The communal space in the dorm-style housing he\u2019s been assigned has pingpong and television. There is phone access that has allowed him to speak to the rapper Ye and also to his children who, on his 55th birthday, serenaded him on speakerphone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank y\u2019all for being strong and thank y\u2019all for being by my side,\u201d Mr. Combs said in a video<\/a> released by his family.<\/p>\n The Brooklyn jail has drawn complaints over the years as a place filled with mold, vermin and neglect, which the Federal Bureau of Prisons has pledged to address. For nearly seven months, its most famous tenant has been Mr. Combs, who is awaiting trial in circumstances far removed from the life of personal chefs and enormous mansions he once enjoyed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He is facing years in prison if convicted on the racketeering and sex trafficking charges<\/a> he faces when his trial begins next month. His lawyers argued strenuously after his arrest last September that Mr. Combs should be free until trial.<\/p>\n Motion after motion, and three hearings, were devoted to arguments over whether he posed too much of a threat to the community \u2014 and of witness tampering \u2014 to be released on bail.<\/p>\n Three judges decided he did<\/a>, so Mr. Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, has been forced to make do at the long-troubled facility that houses more than 1,100 inmates and is beset by a reputation for attrition among its guards and violence within its walls.<\/p>\n The government has depicted Mr. Combs in court papers as the boss of a violent criminal conspiracy that committed kidnapping, arson and drug crimes, while enabling Mr. Combs\u2019s sexual abuse of women.<\/p>\n Mr. Combs\u2019s lawyers have asserted that the charges actually center on consensual sex with long-term girlfriends. The defense has acknowledged that Mr. Combs has had \u201ccomplicated relationships\u201d with significant others, as well as with alcohol and drugs, but has argued that those troubles do not \u201cmake him a racketeer, or a sex trafficker.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As he prepares for trial, the music mogul has been staying in an area of the jail known as 4 North, a fourth-floor dormitory-style unit where roughly 20 men are housed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The unit tends to hold high-profile inmates, including, up until recently, Sam Bankman-Fried<\/a>, the cryptocurrency mogul who was convicted of fraud. Other common detainees in 4 North are government informants, such as former gang members the government wants to separate from the general jail population.<\/p>\n When Mr. Combs was first arrested, his lawyers expected that he would be assigned to the jail\u2019s Special Housing Unit, a restrictive designation that typically means spending 23 hours a day inside a cell.<\/p>\n The conditions in 4 North are far more lenient.<\/p>\n Gene Borrello, a former inmate who said he was placed there because he helped the government convict members of the Mafia, said that compared to other units in the jail, \u201cyou have nothing to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n Inmates are generally free to move around the unit, which has rows of bunk beds, televisions, a microwave and the room where inmates have in the past worked out on mats with exercise balls, Mr. Borrello said. There are multiple compulsory check-ins each day at one\u2019s bunk, overseen by correction officers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The bathroom has stalls, and inmates take meals at tables inside the unit\u2019s common area, said Mr. Borrello, who was last housed there in 2023.<\/p>\n Inmates do not have access to the internet, but they could watch movies and listen to music on tablets that were available for purchase in the commissary, he said.<\/p>\n Previous high-profile occupants of the unit include Genaro Garc\u00eda Luna, a former top law enforcement official<\/a> in Mexico, and Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, the former president of Honduras<\/a>. (Luigi Mangione<\/a>, who shares a lawyer with Mr. Combs, is awaiting trial from the same jail, but is not housed in the same unit.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Bankman-Fried, who is appealing his fraud conviction<\/a>, was in the unit with Mr. Combs until last month, when he was transferred. Shortly before his relocation, Mr. Bankman-Fried spoke in a video interview<\/a> with Tucker Carlson, who asked about Mr. Combs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been kind,\u201d Mr. Bankman-Fried replied, later adding: \u201cIt\u2019s a position no one wants to be in. Obviously he doesn\u2019t \u2014 I don\u2019t. As you said, it\u2019s kind of a soul-crushing place.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Combs meets with members of his legal team frequently, sometimes in a conference room off the common area of his unit. He was provided a laptop without Wi-Fi \u2014 at his lawyers\u2019s urging \u2014 to work through the mountain of evidence that prosecutors have turned over before trial. He can use the laptop between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. each day in the unit\u2019s visiting room or in a room reserved for inmates to take video calls.<\/p>\n The trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan is expected to last about eight weeks. Opening statements are scheduled for May 12.<\/p>\n Inside the detention center, located on the Brooklyn waterfront near a recycling facility, male pretrial inmates wear brown jail clothes. There is a rotating food menu: The second Friday of the month, for example, means lasagna or \u201cpasta fazool\u201d for the vegetarians, as well as spinach and salad.<\/p>\n The commissary stocks snacks like Snickers ($5.95 for a pack of six) and Cheez-Its ($3.65), as well as toiletries and other items like radios and watches. Inmates are allowed to spend up to $180 every two weeks, using money that family and friends can funnel into their commissary funds.<\/p>\n Packets of mackerel, known as \u201cmacks,\u201d operate as a kind of currency between inmates; they are on sale at the commissary for one dollar each.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For Mr. Combs\u2019s unit, visitors are allowed on Tuesdays. Phone calls are capped at 15 minutes each and can be monitored by the government. A leaked clip<\/a> of Mr. Combs\u2019s call with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, included snippets of Mr. Combs encouraging Ye to make new music and promising to call again.<\/p>\n \u201cFifty-nine more days before trial, so I\u2019ll definitely be touching in, to tap into your energy or something,\u201d Mr. Combs said in the recording, before remarking on how \u201csad\u201d his current situation was. \u201cI\u2019m Puff Daddy in jail,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n Brad Rouse, a consultant<\/a> to criminal defendants who landed at the Brooklyn jail on drug charges in 2008, spent a year in a dormitory-style unit one floor below where Mr. Combs is staying. The difference between communal living and isolation is vast, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cJust being able to interact, play chess and talk makes all the difference in the world,\u201d Mr. Rouse said.<\/p>\n For years, defense lawyers have objected to the conditions at the Brooklyn jail, which has taken on more of a burden since the closure of the Metropolitan Correctional Center<\/a> in Manhattan in 2021.<\/p>\n Last year, a federal judge described the conditions in the Brooklyn facility as \u201cgrim,\u201d citing complaints about extended lockdowns, understaffing and delayed medical care. Federal prison officials said they have been working to address the complaints and take their duty to protect its inmates and staff seriously.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Last year, prosecutors said that, during a preplanned sweep of the jail meant to uncover \u201cpotential corruption and contraband,\u201d an investigator took photos of some of Mr. Combs\u2019s personal notes. They included innocuous material such as a reminder of a family member\u2019s birthday and inspirational quotes, along with notes that the government argued were evidence that Mr. Combs was trying to obstruct the prosecution, including one that related to him directing someone to find \u201cdirt\u201d on two alleged victims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidence shows the government is using Mr. Combs\u2019s detention to spy on him and invade his confidential communications with his counsel,\u201d the defense wrote in court papers.<\/p>\n Prosecutors defended the search as within the law but said they would not use any of the notes in their case against Mr. Combs. A judge ruled that his rights had not been violated.<\/p>\n The dispute provided a small window into Mr. Combs\u2019s communications from jail.<\/p>\n According to prosecutors, Mr. Combs bought the use of other inmates\u2019 phone privileges by directing others to pay into their commissary accounts; on some of those calls, they said, he strategized about using public statements to affect the potential jury pool\u2019s perception of him. They also said he has tried to contact potential witnesses<\/a> through three-way calling, which allows him to reach people outside his approved contact list.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n