23 Brooklyn inmates charged after rash of violence, including stabbing
of Jam Master Jay's killer
[March 07, 2025]
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty-three inmates at the troubled federal jail in
Brooklyn have been charged with crimes ranging from smuggling weapons in
a Doritos bag to the stabbing last month of a man convicted in the
killing of hip-hop legend Jam Master Jay.
Federal prosecutors announced the charges Thursday amid a crackdown on
violence and dysfunction at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the only
federal jail in New York City. The facility's nearly 1,200 inmates
include Sean “Diddy” Combs, Luigi Mangione and Sam Bankman-Fried.
Fifteen of the inmates charged were accused in six separate stabbings,
slashings or beatings.
Six were charged in a Feb. 22 melee that injured multiple inmates,
including Karl Jordan Jr., one of two men convicted last year in the
2002 slaying of Run-D.M.C. star Jam Master Jay. Jordan, identified in
court papers as John Doe 1, was stabbed in the back 18 times. At least
nine other inmates had wounds consistent with being stabbed or slashed
and five, including Jordan, were hospitalized, prosecutors said.
The arrests come in the wake of a sweep last October in which
investigators from the federal Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department
inspector general and other local, state and federal law enforcement
agencies seized drugs, homemade weapons and electronic devices from the
Brooklyn jail.
Five inmates were charged with attempting to smuggle contraband into the
jail by throwing a rope out a window and having someone on the outside
hook items onto it.
Correctional officers caught four of the men last June as they pulled a
rope loaded with contraband through the window of their housing area's
recreation room, prosecutors said. Attached to it, prosecutors said, was
what appeared to be suboxone, marijuana, a scalpel, a phone charger,
lighters, and cigarettes.
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Another inmate was caught last October with 21 ceramic blades after
pulling them out of a bag of Doritos and placing them in his shirt
in the jail's visiting room, prosecutors said.
In a previously announced case, a now-former correctional officer
was charged with trying to smuggle bags of marijuana and cigarettes
into the jail in vacuum-sealed bags in January. Another man, who was
not an inmate at MDC Brooklyn, was charged with supplying contraband
to inmates after officers in December found a package on a jail roof
that contained cellphones, marijuana and alcohol. Inmates were
attempting to smuggle in the package by rope, prosecutors said.
The Bureau of Prisons has said it's working to remedy problems at
the Brooklyn jail, where detainees, advocates and judges have
routinely complained about “dangerous, barbaric conditions,”
including rampant violence.
A group of senior Bureau of Prisons officials known as the Urgent
Action Team has focused in recent months on bringing the Brooklyn
jail back to adequate staffing levels and ensuring it is in good
repair. They have made repeated visits to the facility and meet
weekly to address issues at the jail.
In September, federal prosecutors charged nine inmates in a spate of
attacks at the jail and a correctional officer was charged with
shooting at a car during an unauthorized high-speed chase. In
October, an inmate was charged in a murder-for-hire plot that led to
the death of a 28-year-old woman outside a New York City nightclub.
An ongoing Associated Press investigation has uncovered deep,
previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons, an agency
with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates, 122 facilities and
an annual budget of about $8 billion.
AP reporting has revealed rampant criminal activity by employees,
dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing
shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies, including
inmate assaults and suicides.
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