Sean “Diddy” Combs, the disgraced music mogul who once had a net worth of $1 billion, is now using $1 cans of mackerel as currency as he rots in a Brooklyn jail.
Combs, 55, is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of his sex trafficking trial, which begins next month.
The famed rapper — once responsible for some of the biggest hits of the 1990s and 2000s — now uses packets of mackerel known as “macks,” available for $1 from the detention center commissary as a form of currency, the New York Times reported.
Inmates at the infamous jail are allowed to spend up to $180 every fortnight using money that loved ones can place on their commissary funds.
Six-packs of Snickers sell for $5.95 and Cheez-Its for $3.65 are among the other snacks available to Combs, the Times reported.
It marks a far cry from the world of dripping opulence and luxury that Combs once made central to his brand.
Diddy is currently being held in 4 North — a fourth-floor dormitory-style unit home to around 20 male inmates, often some of the most high-profile being held in the jail.
Until recently, convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried was held in 4 North, before his transfer.
Government informants and former gang members who may be at risk of retributive attacks in general population are also held in the secure wing.
Compared to other sections of the notorious detention center, conditions in 4 North are generally more lenient, former inmate Gene Borrello told The Times.
“You have nothing to worry about,” the Mafioso-turned-informant said.Inmates can normally move freely around the unit, which has bunk beds, TVs, a microwave and a gym.
Correction officers oversee multiple compulsory daily check-ins with inmates, he explained.The bathroom has stalls and inmates take meals in the common area, Mr Borrello said.
While they don’t have internet access, they can watch movies or listen to music on tablets that can be bought at the commissary, he said.
Day in the life of Diddy
Combs meets with his legal team frequently behind bars, often in a conference room off the common area of 4 North, the Times reported.
He was provided with a laptop without WiFi so he could go through the reams of evidence prosecutors turned over ahead of his trial start date on May 12.
That laptop can only be used between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., however.
Combs’ hair and beard — once dyed jet black — are now gray, as hair dye is not allowed at MDC, although toiletries and other items such as watches and radios are available in the commissary.
As a pre-trial inmate, Combs will wear brown jail clothes.
The prison canteen has a rotating menu, with lasagna or vegetarian pasta fazool on offer every second Friday of the month, served with spinach and salad.
Visitors are allowed only on Tuesdays, and phone calls are capped at 15 minutes each and can be monitored by the government.
Despite the restrictions, Diddy’s life in 4 North will be far less punishing than that in other parts of the MDC, according to those familiar with the jail.
“Just being able to interact, play chess and talk makes all the difference in the world,” said Brad Rouse, a consultant to criminal defendants who spent a year in a dormitory-style unit one floor below Combs in 2008 on drug charges.
Combs’ lawyers have raised no complaints over their client’s conditions in the MDC, but have objected to the monitoring of his communications by the government as well as a search of personal notes he kept inside the unit.
Combs has allegedly tapped into the allotted minutes of other inmates’ phone privileges and has tried to contact potential witnesses through three-way calling, according to prosecutors.
These modes of communication are common behind bars, his defense has argued.Combs has denied the charges against him.
