NYC jail holding Maduro has a troubled, star-studded previous : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5627x3782+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6f%2Fd2%2Fe86078a4498b91006ca3283060bd%2Fgettyimages-2253947731.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5627x3782+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6f%2Fd2%2Fe86078a4498b91006ca3283060bd%2Fgettyimages-2253947731.jpg" class="img" alt="A Venezuelan supporter of U.S. operations in Venezuela celebrates in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center." fetchpriority="high"/> A Venezuelan supporter of U.S. operations in Venezuela celebrates in entrance of the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn on Saturday. John Lamparksi/AFP through Getty Pictures cover caption

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John Lamparksi/AFP through Getty Pictures Nicolás Maduro is being held in a New York Metropolis jail infamous for its high-profile inmates and harmful situations.

The Venezuelan president and his spouse, Cilia Flores, had been captured by the U.S. navy in a single day Saturday and flown to the U.S., the place they face federal prison prices associated to alleged drug trafficking and weapons.

They're now awaiting trial in New York from the confines of Metropolitan Detention Middle, or MDC, a federal jail in Brooklyn with a scandal-plagued historical past.

Quite a lot of outstanding figures have handed by way of MDC in recent times whereas ready for sentencing — Luigi Mangione, for instance, is held there now.

Different earlier residents embody Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, singer R. Kelly, crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried and Jeffrey Epstein affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Its earlier roster additionally consists of different world leaders. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was detained at MDC after his extradition and arrest on drug trafficking and firearms prices in 2022. Sarcastically, Trump pardoned him in December 2025 whilst he ramped up strain on Maduro.

Regardless of its excessive profile, the jail has struggled with problems with overcrowding, violence, medical neglect and inmate deaths in recent times — prompting a number of judges to refuse to ship individuals there.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F80%2F85%2F6fa6af184bacb87a9f7c46fcdb19%2Fgettyimages-2254198829.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F80%2F85%2F6fa6af184bacb87a9f7c46fcdb19%2Fgettyimages-2254198829.jpg" class="img" alt="The MDC on Monday." loading="lazy"/> The MDC on Monday. Latest points on the jail included "fixed lockdowns, medical mistreatment and botched most cancers diagnoses, and complaints of maggot-infested meals," in line with New York state Sen. Andrew Gounardes. Kena Betancur/AFP through Getty Pictures cover caption

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Kena Betancur/AFP through Getty Pictures After killings in 2024, officers say the jail is secure Earlier than disgraced rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs frolicked in MDC, his legal professionals unsuccessfully lobbied the choose in his case to maintain him out of jail partially due to the dire situations there.

They wrote in a letter that a number of district courts had already acknowledged MDC is "not match for pre-trial detention," quoting earlier circumstances that described overcrowding, staffing points, meals contamination, hazardous bodily situations and violence on the facility.

That 12 months, at the very least two judges refused to order defendants to MDC due to its points.

One choose stated he would vacate a 75-year-old's tax fraud prices and place him below home arrest somewhat than ship him to MDC, citing "inhumane therapy" on the facility. The opposite ordered a person convicted in a drug case to stay free till sentencing somewhat than wait in that individual facility.

"It has gotten to the purpose that it's routine [for federal judges in Manhattan and Brooklyn] to provide diminished sentences to defendants primarily based on the situations of confinement within the M.D.C.," wrote Decide Jesse Furman of the Federal District Courtroom in Manhattan in January 2024, as the power spent its third week in lockdown after an assault on employees members.

Two inmates died in separate stabbing assaults in the summertime of 2024 (9 others had been later charged with the killings and different assaults). Combs' legal professionals of their letter additionally pointed to reviews of at the very least 4 inmate deaths by suicide within the earlier three years.

The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) stated on the time that it was working to handle staffing and different challenges, together with by including medical employees and responding to greater than 700 backlogged upkeep requests.

However points endured, together with "fixed lockdowns, medical mistreatment and botched most cancers diagnoses, and complaints of maggot-infested meals," in line with New York state Sen. Andrew Gounardes.

"MDC is infamous for harmful and inhumane situations which have resulted in a number of inmate deaths, together with medical neglect, abuse, extreme understaffing, and excessive temperatures," he stated in July 2025.

In a September 2025 truth sheet, the BOP stated there had been a "substantial lower in violence, limits on the inmates' scheduled outing of their cells, and tried introductions of contraband" on the jail for the reason that earlier 12 months. They attributed that progress to extra employees, fewer inmates, elevated use of telehealth and facility repairs.

"Briefly, MDC Brooklyn is secure for the inmates and employees," it stated.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4974x3171+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F26%2F5e%2Fae2edf364186922782d78bda4810%2Fgettyimages-2253967945.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4974x3171+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F26%2F5e%2Fae2edf364186922782d78bda4810%2Fgettyimages-2253967945.jpg" class="img" alt="Armed police officers stand in front of the MDC on Saturday." loading="lazy"/> Armed cops stand in entrance of the MDC on Saturday. John Lamparski/AFP through Getty Pictures cover caption

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John Lamparski/AFP through Getty Pictures New York Metropolis's solely federal jail — at the very least for now MDC opened within the early Nineteen Nineties within the Sundown Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, supposed as a hub for pre-trial detainees. It at the moment homes some 1,300 individuals, each women and men, in line with the BOP.

A 2016 report from the Nationwide Affiliation of Ladies Judges known as its situations "unconscionable," saying they violated each the American Bar Affiliation's requirements and the United Nations Normal Minimal Guidelines for Remedy of Prisoners.

"The absence of recent, clear air, the whole absence of daylight, and the absence of outside time and actions are instant points which BOP has failed to handle in any significant trend," it wrote.

The jail made nationwide headlines in January 2019, when {an electrical} hearth triggered a week-long energy outage. Its inhabitants had been left with out gentle or warmth throughout a bitterly chilly polar vortex, with temperatures as little as 2 levels Fahrenheit.

A Justice Division investigation later decided that MDC and BOP administration "took steps to make sure the protection and safety of the power throughout the energy outage however didn't successfully handle different important features of the state of affairs," together with addressing medical points and speaking concerning the suspension of visits.

The federal authorities settled a class-action lawsuit on behalf of some 1,600 then-inmates for roughly $10 million in 2023.

The jail notably housed the primary federal inmate to check optimistic for COVID-19 in March 2020.

Throughout this era, MDC was one among two federal jails in New York Metropolis. However the federal authorities shuttered the opposite, Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Middle (MCC), in August 2021, citing points — like lax safety and crumbling infrastructure — that got here to gentle after Jeffrey Epstein's dying by suicide there two years earlier.

MCC's inhabitants was moved to different jails and stays empty. Whereas its closure on the time was billed as non permanent, the Justice Division stated in 2023 that its "future is unknown, because the BOP has not secured enough funds to finish all the required repairs."