Brad Rouse
It’s no Hollywood lodge, however the Metropolitan Detention Heart (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York, has housed a number of celebrities and high-profile figures, together with Fetty Wap, R. Kelly and Jeffrey Epstein. Sean “Diddy” Combs, Luigi Mangione and Sam Bankman-Fried are at present being held on the facility. However regardless of the jail’s roster of rich and well-known inmates, it has earned a status for having harsh circumstances. Former inmate Brad Rouse, who served one 12 months behind bars, completely tells In Contact about his expertise at MDC.
“One purpose it’s so well-known is simply because it’s the detention facility for the Southern District of New York. There are plenty of massive instances there. It’s New York Metropolis, plenty of high-profile finance instances,” Rouse tells In Contact Investigates’ Kristin Thorne. “Lots of people come from all around the world to New York Metropolis, and lots of of them break the regulation. You realize, I broke the drug legal guidelines again in 2008, and I pled responsible to a drug conspiracy.”
Rouse, a graduate of Harvard College, says he “had by no means been to jail” earlier than MDC and had by no means damaged the regulation previous to his responsible plea.
“So it’s intense as a result of you’ve lots of people who’ve achieved all types of … damaged the regulation in all types of various methods from all around the world, compressed in a decent house,” he provides. “New York Metropolis actual property is small, and so are the jails, and so simply, you understand, the strain and the bodily actuality of New York Metropolis offers it plenty of its challenges, plenty of its drama.”
Rouse says that though he “didn’t have any celebrities” in his unit, he did have some “excessive profile instances.”
“However you understand, for me, I lived in a single room with 120 individuals from all around the world, and we’re in a single room, no cells, simply [a] warehouse there in Brooklyn, in Sundown Park, Brooklyn,” he explains.
Whereas there could have been occasional “pleasure” for a star on the jail, Rouse says that he and his fellow inmates, regardless of who they had been, all lived “in the identical guidelines.”
Kristin Thorne
“I’d advise anyone, regardless of how wealthy and highly effective they had been, to go in there and plan to deal with all people as an equal, all people with respect, as a result of wanting down on individuals, whether or not it’s the inmate within the bunk subsequent to you, or the warden who works there, wanting down on individuals, having expectations that you’d have in the true world, it’s not a lodge,” he says.
It actually doesn’t have the status of a high-profile lodge. It has typically been reported as having unsanitary circumstances, poor safety, violence amongst inmates and insufficient medical care. In 2024, U.S. District Decide Gary R. Brown even cited MDC’s “harmful, barbaric circumstances” when sentencing a defendant to 9 months’ incarceration, promising to vacate the sentence if he was despatched to the NYC jail, in response to The Enchantment.
For Rouse, one of the best ways to get by way of residing with 100-plus individuals for a 12 months was to get right into a routine.
“I discovered a approach to eat as wholesome as doable. I obtained up early. I had a bit of process to do. I wiped down the glass surfaces on the unit. I exercised,” he says, advising present inmates at MDC to do the identical.
“There’s a day sooner or later the place you’ll be again, residing at residence, residing in your group, interacting nose to nose with the individuals you like,” he says whereas giving recommendation to inmates on the jail. “Attempt to put your self on a trajectory to return out in the very best form. You realize, as a result of there’s plenty of despair, plenty of rage and plenty of reckoning happening. You may need one man in your left that’s going residence tomorrow, and one man in your proper who’s simply sentenced to life in jail. What are you able to do to create peace, create wholesome power round you and transfer by way of to the top?”
Rouse continues, “And if there was hurt achieved, if there’s hurt in your story, I counsel everybody to attempt to reckon with that in an sincere approach, think about the victims, the hurt achieved to them, you understand, attempt to take accountability and make amends for that hurt, settle for no matter consequence is a part of that atonement course of, however at all times purpose to return by way of with a coronary heart that’s peaceable.”
He concludes, “We’ve to make use of that point. Your life isn’t on maintain while you’re in that authorities constructing, in that facility, within the penalty field.”
