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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
With the capacity for 1,600 inmates, MDC Brooklyn is the only prison in New York City designated to hold suspects facing federal trial.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Recently, it has begun holding migrants suspected of being in the country illegally as part of Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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