Federal officials have increased staff in recent months at NY jail where Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is held

NEW YORK (AP) — The federal Bureau of Prisons says it has increased staffing in recent months to make up for staggering shortfalls at the troubled New York City jail where Sean “Diddy” Combs is awaiting trial after pleading not guilty Tuesday to sex trafficking charges.

The agency’s push to fix the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn comes as detainees, advocates and judges have continued to raise alarms about “dangerous, barbaric conditions,” rampant violence and multiple deaths. Some judges have refused to send people to the jail, the only federal lockup in the nation’s biggest city.

Combs’ lawyers are pushing to have him moved to a jail in New Jersey, arguing that the Brooklyn jail, known as MDC Brooklyn, is unfit for pretrial detention. Combs, 54, is being kept in the facility’s special housing unit, confined to his cell 23 hours a day, with around-the-clock monitoring, his lawyers said.

MDC Brooklyn is getting needed attention thanks to a group of senior Bureau of Prisons officials known as the Urgent Action Team, which is focusing on bringing the facility back to adequate staffing levels and ensuring it is in good repair.

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