Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn

The Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn (MDC Brooklyn) is a United States federal administrative detention facility in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It holds male and female prisoners of all security levels. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.

For the city jail, see Brooklyn Detention Complex.
For the other federal administrative detention facility in New York City, see Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York.

Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn
Location80 29th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232
StatusOperational
Security classAdministrative facility (all security levels)
Population1,712
Managed byFederal Bureau of Prisons
WardenHeriberto Tellez

Most prisoners held at MDC Brooklyn have pending cases in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. MDC Brooklyn also holds prisoners serving brief sentences.[1] As of April 2022, 1,712 prisoners are held in MDC Brooklyn.

In 2019, one former warden, Cameron Lindsay said that "The M.D.C. was one of the most troubled, if not the most troubled facility in the Bureau of Prisons."[2]

History

MDC Brooklyn occupies land that was originally part of Bush Terminal (now Industry City), a historic intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex.[3] The Federal Bureau of Prisons initially proposed converting two buildings at Industry City into a federal jail in 1988, due to overcrowding at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York.[4] There was large opposition from members of the local community, who feared that traffic congestion in the area would rise.[5] Critics feared that the facility, with its staff, inmates, visitors, and supply deliveries, would overburden neighborhood traffic and water and sewer systems.[6][7] To make room for MDC Brooklyn, one of the original Bush Terminal loft buildings—Federal Building No. 1, formerly occupied by the United States Coast Guard—was demolished in a controlled explosion in August 1993.[8]

MDC Brooklyn opened in the early 1990s. It was built to hold 1,000 inmates awaiting arraignment or trial at the federal court in the Eastern District of New York.[9] By 2019, according to The New York Times, it held 1600 inmates.[10]

In 1999, a second facility was opened adjacent to the original complex to house inmates who have already been sentenced and are awaiting transfer to a permanent facility. This brought the total number of inmates to close to 3,000 and made MDC Brooklyn the largest detention center in the United States.

In June 2015, a lawsuit filed in 2002 against high-ranking officials of George W. Bush's presidential administration, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former F.B.I. Director Robert S. Mueller III, brought by eight, mostly Muslim immigrant detainees, was allowed to go forward by a three-judge federal panel. It alleged that the plaintiffs were subject to chronic arbitrary abuses including beatings, strip searches and solitary confinement. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision included one dissent.[11]

Notable incidents

Inmate assault

On June 29, 2009, Ronald Atkinson (62416-054), an inmate at MDC Brooklyn who had been arrested in connection with six bank robberies twelve days earlier, committed an allegedly unprovoked assault on a correctional officer, punching him in the head multiple times until he was restrained by correctional officers. As a result of the assault, the officer, whom the Bureau of Prisons did not identify, suffered serious injuries, including a broken nose, broken facial bones, a fractured eye socket, a laceration requiring stitches and two slipped discs in his neck. An 18-year veteran of the Bureau of Prisons, the officer was forced to take a medical retirement as a result of his injuries.[12]

Atkinson was subsequently sentenced to 7 years in federal prison for the bank robberies. On July 19, 2013, he was sentenced to an additional 12 years in prison in connection with the assault. Atkinson is scheduled for release in 2031.[13] Atkinson is currently housed at USP Victorville.

Ronell Wilson

On February 5, 2013, New York media outlets reported that Nancy Gonzalez, a former federal correction officer, had engaged in a sexual relationship with Ronell Wilson, an inmate at MDC Brooklyn, and that Gonzalez was carrying Wilson's child. Wilson, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 for the 2003 murders of NYPD Detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin, was awaiting a resentencing hearing in Brooklyn federal court after his original death sentence was overturned in 2010, when he began a relationship with Gonzalez. Gonzalez was terminated and arraigned in federal court on charges of sexual abuse of a person in custody, because an inmate cannot legally consent to sex.[14][15] Wilson was subsequently transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Gonzalez pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual abuse of a ward on July 3, 2013.[16] Gonzalez was sentenced to a year and a day by Federal Judge Brian Cogan on February 9, 2014. Cogan remarked, "[Gonzalez has] severe emotional dysfunction".[17]

Wilson was sentenced to death again on September 10, 2013. During the hearing, US District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis called for a formal investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general into the management of MDC Brooklyn, where, he said, Mr. Wilson was "permitted to treat the MDC as his own private fiefdom."[18]

Winter 2019 heating and power issues

In January and February 2019, over 1,600 inmates were kept with little to no heat and power for a week during the January 2019 North American cold wave. Numerous inmates reported ill health and were seen banging on windows for help. Activists and some New York officials became involved in seeking to improve conditions.[19][20] The incident started on the weekend of January 26–27 with a power outage. A problematic electrical panel was repaired but caught fire the next day.[20] Power was restored on the evening of February 3,[21] and the Department of Justice planned to investigate the incident.[22][23] Inmates, family members and lawyers have said that those inmates involved in protesting these harsh conditions through non-violent disobedience and hunger strikes have faced draconian reprisals from jail staff, including being pepper sprayed, subjected to solitary confinement and having toilets shut off. According to a report in The Intercept:

On all three of those housing units where men collectively refused food, jail staff shut off the valves to the toilets in all of the cells, according to accounts relayed to lawyers. Confined to their cells on lockdown, deprived of light, the men on these units now found themselves shivering on their bunks with their heads inches from toilet bowls nearly overflowing with festering feces.[24]

Notable inmates
Inmate Name Number Photo Status Details
Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado 91441-054 Awaiting trial. Former President of Honduras 2014-2022 (both periods allegedly by fraudulent elections)

Hernández is charged with three counts: (1) conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison; (2) using and carrying machine guns and destructive devices during, and possessing machine guns and destructive devices in furtherance of, the cocaine importation conspiracy, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison; and (3) conspiring to use and carry machine guns and destructive devices during, and to possess machine guns and destructive devices in furtherance of, the cocaine importation conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.[25]

Frank James

 83999-053 Booked in after being transferred from the 9th precinct. Perpetrator of the 2022 New York City Subway attack.

Sam Bankman-Fried

 37244-510 On trial. Imprisoned after bail conditions were revoked for alleged witness tampering. Charged with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy. and money laundering with relation to the collapse of FTX.
Vincent Basciano 30694-054 Transferred to USP Coleman. Serving two consecutive life sentences.[26] Former boss of the Bonanno Crime Family in 2004 after Boss Joseph Massino was arrested; convicted in 2006 of murder, conspiracy and racketeering; convicted in 2011 of ordering the 2004 murder of Bonanno associate Randolph Pizzolo.[27][28]
6ix9ine 86335-054 Moved to a different facility as a safety precaution,[29] released to home confinement on April 2, 2020.[30] Rapper, birth name Daniel Hernandez, charged with racketeering and firearm offenses[31]
Allison Mack 90838-053 Released to home confinement in 2018. Sentenced in 2021 to 3 years' imprisonment, served at FCI Dublin. Released on July 3, 2023.[32] Actress; Pled guilty in 2019 to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy as part of NXIVM cult.[33]
R. Kelly 09627-035 Serving a 31 year sentence, now at FCI Butner Medium I. Scheduled for release on December 21, 2045. Singer; Racketeering, child sexual abuse, kidnapping, bribery, and sex trafficking charges. Arrested in Chicago and brought to Brooklyn to face trial; Convicted in 2021.[34]
Fetty Wap 71943-509 Serving a 72 month sentence Charged with Conspiracy to distribute and possess controlled substances
Frank Cali 75768-053 Released in 2009 Charged with extortion
Martin Shkreli 87850-053 Moved to FCI Allenwood Low; released on May 18, 2022. Former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals; convicted in 2017 of securities fraud;[35] his bail was subsequently revoked after he made a Facebook post offering his followers $5,000 for Hillary Clinton's hair.[36][37]
Vincent Asaro 83223-053 Released on April 20, 2020 Asaro is New York City mobster and capo in the Bonanno crime family. Asaro was found guilty in a vehicle arson case.[38]
Keith Raniere 57005-177
Sentenced to 120 years in prison, now at USP Tucson Founder of the NXIVM sex cult. Convicted in 2019 for two counts of sex trafficking, racketeering, forced labor conspiracy, attempted sex trafficking, and wire fraud conspiracy.[39][40]
Ronald Washington 68635-053 Serving a sentence for drug possession and robbery bought to New York to stand trial Accused of shooting Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay in 2002, charged in 2020.
Karl Jordan Jr. 05124-509 Awaiting Trial, Co-Defendant of Ronald Washington
Linda Weston 68897-066 Now at FCI Hazelton Indicted in 2013 for murder, racketeering, hate crimes and other charges for leading a group who held mentally disabled individuals against their will between 2001 and 2011 in order to steal their Social Security benefits, two of whom died as a result of abuse.[41][42]
Abid Naseer 05770-748 Now at FCI Three Rivers Alleged Al-Qaeda operative; extradited from the United Kingdom in 2012 to face charges that he took part in an international conspiracy to conduct bombings in the United States and Europe; sentenced in 2015 to 40 years; three co-conspirators were convicted in 2010 and 2012.[43]
Caswell Senior 20180-509 Detained at MDC while awaiting trial. Sentenced to 188 months in prison on June 27, 2023. Rapper known as Casanova, surrendered to authorities in December 2020 for racketeering, murder, narcotics, firearms and fraud offenses.
Paul Nicholas Miller 32607-509 Was serving a 41-month sentence; released on July 3, 2023. American far-right political commentator and streamer, known online as 'GypsyCrusader'. Miller is best known for his cosplays of various characters, most notably Joker. Miller was indicted on charges of possessing a firearm as convicted felon and possession of unregistered rifle on February 25, 2021, stemming from an incident that took place in January 2018.[44]
Al Sharpton 21458-069 Served 90 days at MDC Brooklyn in 2001. Baptist minister, political activist and current MSNBC television host; convicted of trespassing on federal property for protesting against the US military presence on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.[45]
Megan Rice 88101-020 Released from custody on April 16, 2015. Anti-nuclear activist and Roman Catholic nun; convicted in 2013 of sabotage for unlawfully entering the Y-12 National Security Complex and vandalizing a facility housing weapons-grade uranium.[46][47]
Michael Cohen 86067-054 Serving a sentence of three years. His sentence started at FCI Otisville in May 2019, but was transferred to home confinement in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2020, he was taken back into federal custody over disputed conditions. Released again later that month.[48] Former Trump Organization lawyer. Pled guilty in 2018 tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution, an excessive campaign contribution, making false statements to a congressional committee.[49][50][51]
Ghislaine Maxwell 02879-509 Transferred on July 6, 2020, to Tallahassee FCI. Serving a 20-year sentence. Was on trial for helping procure underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.[52]
Rudolph Meredith 01481-138 Released on May 8, 2023. Former Yale University women's soccer coach. Convicted of wire fraud for his role in the Varsity Blues scandal.
Guo Wengui 49134-510 Awaiting trial. Former Chinese Businessman.

Awaiting trial for various wire fraud, securities fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering charges.[53]

Adley Abdulwahab 77373-279 Serving a 60-year sentence; scheduled for release in 2069. Hedge fund manager and part owner of A&O Resources Management; convicted in 2011 of stealing $100 million from 800 victims by misrepresenting details about the company and concealing his prior criminal history; several co-conspirators were also sentenced to prison; the story was featured on the CNBC television program American Greed.[54][55][56]
Anthony “Harv” Ellison 86282-054 Serving a 24-year sentence, scheduled for release in 2039. Member of the Nine Trey Gangsters, orchestrated the kidnapping and robbery of rapper 6ix9ine in 2018.

See also

References
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  2. Correal, Annie; Goldstein, Joseph (February 9, 2019). "'It's Cold as Hell': Inside a Brooklyn Jail's Weeklong Collapse". New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  3. United States. Bureau of Prisons (1991). Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn: Environmental Impact Statement. p. 21. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  4. Farrell, Bill (March 25, 1988). "Feds need more space to house the bad eggs". New York Daily News. p. 70. Retrieved November 29, 2018 – via newspapers.com. open access
  5. Prial, Frank J. (February 6, 1991). "Jail Is Planned For Brooklyn, And Foes Rise". The New York Times. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
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  8. Allen, Michael O. (August 16, 1993). "Wrecking crew clears way for detention ctr". New York Daily News. p. 341. Retrieved December 1, 2018 – via newspapers.com. open access
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