NEW YORK (NewsNation) — A former warden at the Brooklyn detention center where Sean “Diddy” Combs is being held says the facility suffers from a “disproportionate element of corruption within the ranks.”
“The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) has a difficult time recruiting and retaining staff,” Cameron Lindsay told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas. “One of the key issues is the lack of staffing, and it would be unfair for me not to mention that the vast majority of MDC staff are hardworking, salt of the earth, well-trained people. I know many of them. They’re fantastic people.”
Elements of corruption, however, have resulted in constant staff turnover, according to Lindsay.
It’s that, combined with Diddy’s status, that has Lindsay concerned about the embattled artist’s safety.
“In my humble estimation, his life and his safety are in jeopardy,” he said.
Combs, 54, was sent to the MDC on Tuesday — a place that’s been described as “hell on earth” — after pleading not guilty in a case that accuses him of physically and sexually abusing women for more than a decade.
A judge Wednesday denied a request by Combs’ lawyers to let him await trial under house arrest at his $48 million mansion on an island in Miami Beach, Florida.
A law enforcement official told CNN that Combs is being held by himself in a special housing unit inside the Brooklyn jail.
“If it is true, as reported, that he is housed in the special housing unit, it’s important to note that the unit is a lockdown — 24-hour lockdown unit,” Lindsay said. “The vast majority of the floors are general population floors, but the special housing unit is a 24-hour lockdown facility.”
Combs, according to Lindsay, will likely be in his cell 23 hours a day.
“I would certainly expect for him to be recreating alone; three showers a week, and three hots and a cot, as they say. But he’s he will be in that cell minus social and legal visits,” he said.