Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - P. Diddy’s Long Days, Short Nights In Jail During Trial

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

Sean “Diddy” Combs is currently on trial for alleged sex trafficking and racketeering. The music mogul is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center, also known as the MDC. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy breaks down what P. Diddy’s life is like behind bars.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you received Depo-Provera birth control shots and were later diagnosed with a brain or spinal tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible for a lawsuit. Visit https://forthepeople.com/lcdepo to start a claim now! Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Producer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. As Sean Combs stands trial for racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges, he's behind bars at a notorious federal jail, the MDC. I take a look at what Combs' days are like during the trial and his lawyers' complaints about meeting with him. Welcome to Crime Fix.

I'm Anjana Levy. Sean Combs is locked up at a jail with a history of complaints and problems. Combs fought tooth and nail to stay out of jail during his trial, but he lost each and every request he made to get bail. He was willing to put up millions and millions of dollars in higher private security, but the judge said no dice after hearing arguments from prosecutors who claimed that Combs was trying to tamper with witnesses from his jail cell. Combs has been housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his arrest in September of 2024. It's not a great place, according to

anyone who's been housed there. This is the jail where Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges back in 2019. And before you say that that didn't happen, Dan Bongino, the current deputy director of the FBI, says indeed it happened. And he has video evidence that he's going to be releasing that he says backs up that claim. But still, that was a failure of the MDC staff to keep an eye on Epstein.

But back to Sean Combs. Combs is on trial in the Southern District of New York on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of those charges, and his lawyers have said that Combs has never sex trafficked or sexually assaulted anyone. Now it's bad enough being in jail or prison, but imagine you're a billionaire and you've

been living large for more than 20 years, people doing everything you want and then you wind up in the MDC. Now I'm sure it's been a total shock to Sean Combs' system. Even from the outside the MDC looks pretty drab and dreary. It is a jail after all and I can only imagine what it's like on the inside and I've been in a handful of prisons and jails. Collins is on trial in lower Manhattan at the federal courthouse on Pearl Street. And I'm not sure if he's getting a special lunch at the courthouse, but he's getting his regular breakfast

and dinner at the MDC. And that can be stuff like oatmeal and grits or a continental breakfast. And for dinner, it could be a chicken salad, a hot dog, Salisbury steak, or turkey roast. That's all according to the BOP menu. And throughout the trial, his lawyers have complained about the access they have to him. They try to get him on the phone and despite him having 300 minutes on his phone account, according to records, they say they can't get in touch

with him. Judge Subramanian has said the marshal's service, which transports combs to and from court and provides security at the courthouse, is already stretched thin and they've provided a lot of accommodations to combs in his team. So the judge says they can try to get combs to the courthouse by 7 a.m. each morning to meet with his lawyers. The marshals just can't hang out with combs all night and into the evening hours. So his lawyers can meet with them. There are rules. He has to be back at the jail by a certain time for a head count. This is another law and crime legal alert. If you received Depo-Provera birth control shots and were later diagnosed with

a brain or spinal tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible to take part in a lawsuit. Morgan & Morgan is investigating claims that patients were not properly warned about this risk. It's free to check, it takes just a few minutes and you don't pay unless they win. So scan the QR code on your screen, click the link below, or go to forthepeople.com slash LC depot to see if you qualify.

All right, so to talk about what Sean Combs' life is like behind bars during his trial, I wanna bring somebody in who would know all about that. He is Duane Hendricks. He is a former deputy warden of the MDC, where Sean Combs is being held and where he has been held now for many months. So Duane, thanks for coming on.

First off, have you been following the trial as it progresses? Yes, I have. I've been following the trial as it progresses? Yes, I have. I've been following the trial, even the pre-trial, what was going on before the trial started. I've done some coverage in terms of the conditions of Mr. Combs while he was there, more specifically when he first arrived and he was on Suicide Watch. So from that point on, I've been very interested in following up on the trial and the process that he's going through right now. Yeah, you know, it's funny, you know,

he was on Suicide Watch. That's pretty typical for a high profile inmate and for a lot of inmates, you know, when they get brought in at first. I mean, let's clear that up first off the bat. Explain to me why that is done. It doesn't necessarily mean like, oh my God, we think this person is going to kill themselves, isn't it precautionary? And so you can assess somebody because this would be a major shock to the system of somebody like a Sean Combs, who's been living in the lap of luxury for many years, for decades, to then be thrown into the MDC, which has a very notorious reputation.

Yes, and not all inmates are placed on suicide watch when they first arrive. It just depends on their asked various questions from different professionals. Once they arrive, they go through a health screening, they go through a mental health screening, they go through a security screening. And like you said, this is a high profile individual. So he was going to be placed in what we call administrative detention initially in a special housing unit just to assess him before they would place him in a general population unit. And I'm sure he was probably placed on suicide watch based on some answers that he gave to some questions upon his arrival at the facility.

And according to reports, there were drugs found in his hotel room when he was arrested. So he could have been high off some drugs or something like that. And just a precautionary measure, just to make sure there was no self harm involved once he arrived, because I believe after about two weeks, after he was there, he was actually placed in a modified, what we call like a modified general population unit, not in the West building, where we would

say the killers and dealers are more or less at. He's in the East building where it's more dorm style and very low number of inmates. How bad is the MDC? Obviously, we always hear these stories that it's just so bad. It's a terrible place. I mean, you were the deputy warden there. I mean, how bad is it? I mean, prisons are not, and this is a jail, it's a federal jail lockup. I mean, I don't know if I've ever been to a prison and I've been to a couple. I've been to jails and I don't think I've ever been to one where I was like, oh yeah, this isn't bad. This isn't so bad. Like I've never been to one where I was like, oh yeah, this isn't bad. This isn't so bad. Like I've never been to one where I was like,

yeah, I might wanna hang out here. So what makes MDC so bad? Well, I wouldn't say the place is bad, but I do, I will admit that it does have a sort of troubled history. I mean, going all the way back to when it was activated in the early nineties. I mean, I can talk for 30 to 45 minutes on the different scandals that have occurred

there throughout the years. And more recently, you know, they had the riot in the front lobby where some citizens, they were, you know, pepper spray or some something like that sprayed on the visitors that they were trying to get into the into the lobby. But I think it's mainly because some of the just some really just every five to ten years there's something that happens there. When I first arrived it was coming off the heels of one of the officers getting pregnant by a convicted felon who had murdered, allegedly murdered two undercover cops over in Staten Island. who had allegedly murdered two undercover cops over in Staten Island. And he was brought back to MDC Brooklyn to be retried

because he was sentenced to death. And during that time, an officer got pregnant by him. So that was obviously a big scandal. And we were under a lot of scrutiny from the Department of Justice and the Office of Inspector General. During that time, I mean, we had a couple of in from the Department of Justice and the Office of the Inspector General during that time. I mean, we had a couple of inmate suicides.

We had staff suicide while I worked there. But I will say, in spite of all the different scandals and different things that have happened there, there are probably out of the five to six hundred staff there, I would say 85 to 90% of those folks there are there to do their job, take care of business. And then a small number of staff who find themselves with a lot of cases, whether it's administrative or even some criminal, are bringing in contraband and doing different things with those inmates there. So that's what makes it in the public eye a bad place.

But I would say, you know, 85 to 90% of the people there are there to do their job and take care of business. So during the trial, you know, Sean Combs, he's, the marshals are taking care of the security, obviously, at the courthouse. You know, each day he's carted off to the courthouse for the proceedings from the MDC. His lawyers have complained that they're not getting enough time with him. Allegedly, he's got 300 minutes on his phone privileges, but they somehow can't get through to him.

They want more time with him. Judge Subramanian has said that the US Marshals Service, they've already made, they're making a lot of accommodations for Sean Combs and for this trial and for him to be able to spend time with his attorneys. And so it sounds like there's some tension there. And the judge is trying to accommodate them. But it sounds like they can't just

have the US Marshals being his personal bodyguards 24 hours a day so he can hang out somewhere with his attorneys to confer on the case. So what do you think of that? What do you think of this? I mean, they're saying he's got these 300 minutes allegedly but it's not working and we can't talk to him. What do you make of these complaints?

Well, he is a, like you said, he's a US Marshals inmate, although he's being housed in NBC Brooklyn. Since he has his case through the Southern District of New York, if the Manhattan Correctional Center was still open, he would have been housed over there, which is very close to the courthouse. So with court ending about 3.30, 4 o'clock every day, they could out process him, take him over to the MCC, and then he could sit with his attorneys for another couple of hours to strategize. But as you may know, traveling from Manhattan to Brooklyn after 4 o'clock every day, it might take a while. So he's probably not getting back to the MDC

till about five or 5.30, because he's got an in-process to the East building, get in the unit, eat, and then, so we're talking about 5.30, then visiting ends Monday through Friday at MDC Brooklyn at 7 p.m. and at 4 p.m. on Saturdays. So you're talking about an hour and a half. Even for lawyers? Even for lawyers?

Even for lawyers? Yes. Yes. For lawyers. However, I will say this. The marshals and the executive staff and the staff in the receiving discharge area, they work closely with the marshal service. So it would just be a conversation, hey, this guy probably needs another two hours every

evening, maybe even on the weekends, depending on how many inmates are also needing a visit with their attorneys on Saturdays and Sundays and holidays. They would just need to work out what we call a special visit in the visiting room. They can put him on an out count. There's usually a standup count every day between the hours of 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. This trial is only going to last another few weeks. So it would be easy for the administration to accommodate those, that extra hour, especially since he's probably not getting back from the court until well after five o'clock.

And the last thing that MDC, like you said, it's been a troubled facility for a number of years. And the last thing you wanna do is to insert yourself in this trial, meaning if he is convicted, you don't wanna have his legal team say, hey, you can file an appeal because you didn't have effective counsel, because you didn't have access to go over strategy. They had to make decisions without my permission. I really didn't want that strategy. So, and the population is down significantly

at MDC Brooklyn, even though MCC has brought all their inmates over there. So he's in a unit with about 20 inmates. The East building probably don't have no more than about 100 inmates in that building right now. So, to me, it's an easy thing to accommodate. Now, if this was 10 years ago when I was there, we had over 3,500 inmates, then it probably would have been an issue for us. So... So, they're talking about...

They've also talked about the judge judges saying like, well, maybe there's something we can do where we can get him here to the courthouse at 7 a.m. and you guys can kind of meet with him in confab at that time before court. Maybe that's easier because you're not running into as much traffic. But they're still talking about the martial service being stretched really thin. So if you're getting somebody like Sean Combs ready for court in the morning, are you transporting him? First of all, does he get to eat his breakfast at the MDC?

And then you guys, like in his jail jumpsuit, you put him in the van and you transport him over to the courthouse, you get him dressed in his court clothes there, and then that's how it works. Tell me how that process works. Typically every day, between 2 and 4 p.m., the marshals will let the receiving and discharge staff know which inmates have court the next day. So after the 5 a.m. count clears, the staff will awaken those inmates if they're not already awake, and get them ready to be taken down to the receiving and discharge area to be out-processed to the court. So it would really be up to the marshals to get there a little early to take him over.

And like I said, since there's not that many inmates over in the East building, depending on what their resources is like, because the Bureau, we don't transport inmates to court. Again, he's a marshal's inmate, so he would move with him, with them, either in a van or in a bus or whatever, how are they gonna to transport the number

of inmates that needs to go to court. So I think that would be the plan of action to get him either over there early in the morning or accommodate him later in the evenings, which wouldn't be an issue. As long as staff are willing to take over time and management has the right to assign a management official to stay over to accommodate that. Because again, you don't want to over insert yourself in this particular case, especially with the amount of public interest locally here in America and as well as internationally. Do you think that this is being overblown a little bit by his defense team, all of these complaints? I mean, I'm sure they would love to be able to

hang out with him until 10 o'clock at night, you know, and when I say hang out, I mean, meet with him, you know, have some dinner, go over strategy, go over testimony. I mean, he is, Phoebe is surely writing notes to his defense team while he is in court. I mean, he is feverishly writing notes to his defense team while he is in court. I mean, he is a very active member of his defense team. He is helping, I mean, if not almost orchestrating parts of his defense here at the table, at the defense table there. So is some of this maybe being overblown because I'm sure that he lost his fight to stay out on bail. I mean, they looked at him as somebody who might tamper with witnesses and stuff like that.

Is maybe some of this being overblown? Or do you think that these are legit concerns? Well, I think it's a little bit of both. Cause like you said, they fought tooth and nail to say, Hey, MDC Brooklyn is not the place anybody should be incarcerated. Let's send them over to a jail over in New Jersey. And then I also saw reports after he was there

for a couple of weeks that from his lead attorney that the staff were being very accommodating. Right. However- Yeah, I remember that. He said, oh yeah, they've done a lot for us. Da da da da. He was being very complimentary.

Yeah. Yeah. But now that we're in the trial, you know, so any I think anything that they can get on record to, you know, to uphold whatever appeal process they want to go through if he is convicted, they want to put that on the record. And like I said, you know I said, in the times we're in now with them having a low population, to me, it'll just be easier to make that accommodation to allow them to meet with him for a couple of hours a night if that's what they want to do. Because again, this trial is going to be over in the next few weeks and by accommodating it, especially if you can, then it eliminates NBC Brooklyn being inserted

into any habeas actions that Mr. Collins may file if he's not acquitted on all charges. You know, what's it like though when he gets ready in the morning? I mean, does he, you think get to eat there? Like does the staff make sure he eats before he takes off for court or I mean, how does that work? I mean, I know this is not like, oh, you know,

room service or something like that. That's, that's silly. This is a jail. Yeah, so food is, the food is, is prepared, you know, three days in advance and typically breakfast is a continental type breakfast. So what food service will do, their workers are up well before the 5 a.m. count.

Most of their workers are up about one or two in the morning. So they're already preparing, they put some continental like a meal, some fruit or something like that together. And he can eat that meal before, if decides to you know, he may have be got it, you know I heard he complained about the food at the institution. So he may even snack on some of his commissary food before he Is brought down to receiving a discharge. But yeah, they offer or provide Mills for inmates that are either going to court or maybe being transported

after they've been convicted and designated before they get on an airlift. They'll provide those guys meals or ladies meals before they leave the building in the morning. Again, I don't know Mr. Combs, but just following the trial, I'm sure he's probably up early and ready to go and probably standing beside his bunk because I know he's in a dorm style unit there in the East Building and eager to get to the court and do the things that he's been doing on a daily basis throughout the trial. Well, it's been interesting to watch somebody of his prominence have to be put into the MDC as he goes through this process.

Any final thoughts? Yeah. You know, I was listening to some of your other commentary and I know he, Mr. Combs didn't take a plea and I'll tell you one of the reasons why I believe he did not. And that's because he would not be eligible for any first step act credits, which is a law that was put in place to help reduce inmate sentences, you know, by upwards of almost four months a year. And he would also not be eligible for the residential drug abuse

program which could offer him a year off his sentence. So even if they offered him 15 years, you know, looking at 54 days of good time plus another 120 because he could have earned 10 days a month for doing certain classes, you're talking about almost six months a year. So even if they had offered him 15, he could easily have done just half that time on a plea agreement. But if he is sentenced on any of these counts, whatever time he gets, he's only going to get those 54 days off.

So I think that's why he went ahead to trial. And I think that is why he's fighting feverishly for his freedom because if even if he's uh even if he's just committed of convicted of the lesser charges of just transportation for something I'm sorry I don't know the exact charge transportation to engage in prostitution yeah yes yeah so even with that I mean that that's 10 years. So he's, he's betting on himself. And I think that's one of the reasons why he did. He went ahead and went to trial. Yeah. I think you make a good point there. That was very interesting that you brought that up. There are also some people who are pretty prominent in the legal field who believe

that if let's say Sean Combs is convicted, that he might have some really good appellate issues too. So there's that. You never know. There's all this stuff floating out there, Dwayne. Also this whole talk about whether or not the president might consider pardoning him if he thinks he was treated unfairly. So there's a lot going on with this case.

Thank you so much, Dwayne Hendricks. I appreciate it. I hope you'll come back. Sure. I'm hoping, you know, whatever the outcome may be, if he is convicted, I'd love to come back and talk to you about the designation process and the pre-sentencing process and what that would look like before he goes for sentencing. So looking forward to spending some more time with you. Thank you for having me. We will set a date. Yeah, we will set to spending some more time with you. Thank you for having me. We will set a date. Yeah, we will set a date.

I'll text you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Janelle Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.