New York City’s Metropolitan Detention Center is set to become the new home for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for the foreseeable future and it has a reputation from past high-profile inmates.

From complaints about violence and overcrowding to food barely fit for human consumption, the facility has faced criticism for decades.

Many of those complaints have come from detainees like Sean Combs, Ghislaine Maxwell and R. Kelly to name a few.

From complaints over food to cleanliness and safety – the center has been called “Hell on Earth.”

Inmates have died in the jail, fights have broken out and there have been staffing shortages since its opening in the 1990s.

Part of the problem is it is New York City’s only detention facility since the closure of the Manhattan Correctional Center in 2021.

Some of the highest-profile inmates to be housed there have complained about the conditions.

Sean “Diddy” Combs claimed the jail serves expired, maggot-infested food, and called to be transferred from the “inhumane environment.”

Singer R. Kelly mentioned while on suicide watch he was subject to cruel punishment, like being forced to eat without utensils.

Then Ghislaine Maxwell described raw sewage, mold and rats in her cells.

City leaders have tried but failed to tour the conditions inside, including Rep. Dan Goldman who spoke out last summer.

“The question is what are they hiding, well we now have a track record that they are hiding unacceptable, unconstitutional, conditions that violate the civil rights of those detainees,” Goldman said at the time.

ABC Legal Analyst Brian Buckmire has been to MDC many times.

“Including allegations of there being no heat, no water, people not getting fed, numerous lockdowns, inability to provide for just basic health care.”

Maduro probably wont be able to move around much in jail.

“He’s going to be kept in his cell and only be brought out for small periods of time, whether it be going to court or going to get a meal or if he has to take a shower,” Buckmire said.

And the lifestyle is far from presidential.

“We’re not talking about the lobster and steak that he’s probably used to as president, we are talking peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, mac and cheese, milk, apple juice, water, things of that nature,” Buckmire said.

Maduro is not the first international leader held there. Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was also at one point held at the facility and was eventually sentenced to 45 years before he was pardoned by President Donald Trump last month.

And among those currently held there is Luigi Mangione ahead of his murder trial in the death of the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The Bureau of Prisons acknowledges the facility’s aging infrastructure and staffing challenges, but denies conditions are deliberately inhumane.

Following an investigation by the Associated Press last year, officials promised the addition of more staff, and claimed to have addressed more than 700 maintenance requests.

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