The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York, has become the holding facility for deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, following their capture by US military forces in Caracas. The couple will likely remain at the MDC until their federal trial on drugs and weapons charges, joining a list of notorious inmates that includes Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Ghislaine Maxwell, Sam Bankman-Fried, and Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo'.
Located in the Sunset Park neighbourhood, the MDC houses prisoners with pending cases in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, as well as those serving short sentences. Other high-profile detainees have included Luigi Mangione, charged in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted of cocaine trafficking.
Defence lawyers have repeatedly complained about unsafe and inhumane conditions at the MDC. In a bid for bail for Combs, his attorneys cited violence, including an inmate death in summer 2024 and at least four suicides in the past three years. They also described the facility as 'dirty' and 'infested with drugs', with food contamination and hazardous physical conditions.
Federal judges have refused to send some defendants to the MDC due to its conditions. Judge Jesse Furman noted in January 2024 that he would not send a compliant defendant there before sentencing, citing 'near perpetual lockdowns' and unacceptable conditions. Judge Colleen McMahon previously called the MDC and Manhattan's closed Metropolitan Correctional Center 'run by morons', with wardens cycling through every few months.
The MDC, which holds 1,336 inmates, has struggled with overcrowding and staff shortages since absorbing detainees from the Manhattan facility in 2021. A 2019 power outage left inmates without heat for a week during a polar vortex. The Federal Bureau of Prisons claims conditions have improved since January, but judges routinely give reduced sentences based on confinement conditions, with prosecutors no longer disputing the state of affairs.
