Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is reflecting in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, and let’s take a look into the regulations for communications and visitors
Sean “Diddy” Combs is still able to keep in contact with his kids while he’s in prison.
The music mogul is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York. He’s awaiting his trial next year and has pled not guilty and has denied any wrongdoings.
Earlier this week, Combs celebrated his birthday with a phone call from his seven children who sang him a happy birthday and blew out candles for him. But will he be able to spend time with his kids this week?
A Mirror US reporter spoke to Sam Mangel, a federal prison consultant about what phone calls and visitation are like in MDC. Inmates can call out, but people can’t call them.
Combs’ family can visit him one day a week
They’re also only allowed 15 minutes per phone call and there’s no warning when the 15 minutes are up. The call will just drop. Mangel said inmates get 510 minutes a month of phone calls “assuming that they’re part of the general population [and] there’s no restrictions, there’s no disciplinary issues, under normal circumstances.”
However, on January 1, the minutes allowed are dropping to 300 – which was the standard amount pre-COVID. Phone calls aren’t the only way for inmates to communicate with the outside world. Inmates have unlimited access to emails and are allowed 30 approved contacts to write to.
“Emails typically run five cents a minute, but as long as there’s money in your account and you have access to one of the computer terminals, you can use email now,” Mangel said.
Inmates can also have social visits. According to a visitor regulation guide obtained by The Mirror US, pretrial inmates are allowed hour-long visits per week per visitor. The day of the visit depends on the floor the inmate resides on.
He’s being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center
For social visits, guests have to be pre-approved and pass a background check. Typically, only four people are allowed in for a visit at a time, but children under four years old do not count towards the limit.
Visitors have their hand stamped “for additional security and identification purposes” and “can bring in a plastic baggie, usually 25 up to 25 $1 bills for use with the vending machines, and they can buy the inmate soda bottles of water, snacks, sometimes ice cream, that are available in the vending machines.” Only visitors can visit the vending machine though, not the inmates.
Visitors can’t bring in “all materials, including cellular telephones, pagers, newspapers, magazines, tissues, wallets, personal keys and watches are prohibited from being brought into the institution, and will be secured in a lobby locker.” There’s also a dress code for visitors.
“Clothing cannot be provocative, revealing, or offensive (containing profanity, nudity, or disparaging remarks),” the regulations read. Open-toed shoes, tank tops, outerwear, sweat pants or “tight fitting clothing to include yoga pants and jeggings” are not allowed. Skirts, dresses, and shorts can’t be shorter than three inches above the knee.
