Overview
- Nicolás Maduro is in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after being transferred to New York and entering a not-guilty plea in federal court.
- The MDC functions as a short-term federal detention center run by the Bureau of Prisons and is currently the city’s only operating federal jail after Manhattan’s facility closed in 2021.
- Official data cited in coverage report 1,336 inmates in a facility built for about 1,000, with documents referenced by AP indicating staffing at roughly 55 percent.
- The jail has drawn sustained criticism for harsh conditions, including heating and power failures, cramped cells, violence, and past corruption and contraband investigations.
- Recent coverage notes the facility’s history of high-profile detainees such as Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, and reports that rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was admitted there on January 6 without confirmation of any contact with Maduro.