NEW YORK — An interagency operation is underway at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, federal prison officials say.
The New York City jail is currently housing Sean “Diddy” Combs on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Other high-profile inmates, from R. Kelly to Sam Bankman-Fried, have been held there over the years.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons told CBS News in a statement the operation was “designed to achieve our shared goal of maintaining a safe environment for both our employees and the incarcerated individuals housed at MDC Brooklyn.”
The bureau added there is no active threat at the facility.
The agency partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and other law enforcement agencies for the sweep.
MDC Brooklyn has long history of complaints
The operation comes as the jail faces increased scrutiny over deaths, violence and dismal conditions. The Bureau of Prisons and the Justice Department have been pushing to fix the problems and hold perpetrators accountable.
Last month, nine inmates were charged in a series of attacks at the troubled jail. 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 chase.
MDC is the only federal jail center in the city since MCC New York — where Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide — closed in 2021. The waterfront industrial complex houses 1,200 people, mainly those who have been arrested and are awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Inmates at MDC previously won a $10 million class action settlement over frigid conditions during an eight-day blackout in 2019.
Stick with CBS News New York for the latest updates on this developing story.
