(AFP) – Deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are the latest high-profile inmates held in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, the largest federal pre-trial holding facility in the United States. After the pair pleaded not guilty Monday to drug trafficking and other charges, a federal judge in New York ordered Maduro and Flores be confined in the hulking lockup until further notice.
With the capacity for 1,600 inmates, MDC Brooklyn is the only prison in New York City designated to hold suspects facing federal trial. Recent detainees include disgraced rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s former accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and another former Latin American president charged with drug trafficking: Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras, who recently received a pardon from US President Donald Trump.
The heavily used MDC Brooklyn has faced accusations of mismanagement, and is regularly criticized for its aging facilities and consistent issues with administering health care for those held inside. The jail has been plagued by a series of high-profile incidents, including a devastating power outage in the middle of a freezing winter in 2019 and the stabbing deaths of two inmates in 2024.
Recently, it has begun holding migrants suspected of being in the country illegally as part of Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown. Daniel Lambright, special counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union, described the facility as having spoiled food, unchecked violence, and lack of medical care for inmates. “MDC Brooklyn is a secretive, inhumane disaster that should have no place in immigration enforcement,” Lambright said, adding that “no one should endure such abuse.”
© 2024 AFP
