NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs are advocating for the hip-hop icon to be placed in a minimum-security federal prison in New Jersey to serve his four-year, two-month sentence. They argue that the drug treatment program at this facility will assist him in maintaining sobriety.
Combs’ legal team wrote to Judge Arun Subramanian, seeking a “strong recommendation” for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to assign Combs to FCI Fort Dix. This extensive prison sits within the McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst military base.
FCI Fort Dix is one of several federal prisons equipped with a residential drug rehabilitation program, which Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos believes is essential for tackling substance abuse issues while also supporting family visits and rehabilitation.
Additionally, on Monday, President Donald Trump mentioned that Combs approached him seeking a pardon. Trump used the moniker “Puff Daddy” when discussing the pardon, though he did not disclose whether he would approve it. Combs’ legal representatives and publicity team did not immediately respond to requests for comments on Trump’s statement.
Combs was sentenced last Friday for facilitating the interstate transportation of individuals for sexual purposes, ending a federal case marked by intense accounts of violence and drug abuse. The trial shed light on the dubious private ventures of an influential music industry leader.
The performer of “I’ll Be Missing You” was found guilty under the federal Mann Act for moving people across state borders for sexual activities. Although acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering—which could have resulted in a life sentence—his trial concluded with a mixed verdict.
Combs has been locked up at a Brooklyn federal jail, the Metropolitan Detention Center, since his arrest in September 2024. That time will be subtracted from his sentence, meaning he could get out in about three years.
Subramanian has not yet acted on the request to place him at FCI Fort Dix.
Judges often make recommendations about where inmates should serve time, but it’s ultimately up to the Bureau of Prisons to decide. Those decisions, the agency has said, are based on a variety of factors, including the severity of the offense, the required security level and an inmate’s programming needs.
FCI Fort Dix, the largest single federal prison by population with just under 3,900 inmates, is about 64 miles (103 kilometers) southwest of New York City, where Combs was born and rose to fame as a rapper and entrepreneur in an array of businesses, including fashion, television and liquor. An adjacent minimum-security prison camp has 210 inmates.
The facility has been home to a number of high-profile inmates over the years, including mobsters, corrupt politicians and “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli. For a time, it was run by the warden who had been in charge of a Manhattan federal jail when financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself at the jail in 2019. That warden, Lamine N’Diaye, has since retired.
In 2021, a 27-year-old Fort Dix inmate was stabbed in the eyeball by a fellow prisoner.
In 2019, a Fort Dix inmate, a former inmate and two other people were arrested for using a drone to smuggle in contraband including cellphones, tobacco, weight-loss supplements and eyeglasses. The same year, a Fort Dix correctional officer pleaded guilty in a separate case to pocketing bribes to smuggle in contraband.
During his time at Fort Dix, Shkreli ended up in solitary confinement amid allegations he was using a contraband smartphone to run his drug company from behind bars. Inmates are forbidden from conducting business and possessing cellphones.
