Learn about MDC Brooklyn
My name is Michael Santos and I’m a founder of Prisons Professors. Authorities locked me in federal prison in 1987, before MDC Brooklyn opened.
While serving 26 years in different federal prisons, I learned a great deal about all federal prisons, including Metropolitan Detention Centers, like MDC Brooklyn.
Our team strives to help people prepare for the best outcome during imprisonment. We are fully aware of the hardships a person is likely to experience.
We also know that a person can restore strength and confidence. It starts with getting basic information about federal prisons, including MDC Brooklyn. At Prison Professors, we offer dependable guidance people can use to live through prison and leave as better citizens no matter where they serve their time.
The Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Facility (MDC Brooklyn) is a federal administrative detention center in Brooklyn, New York. It is an all-gender facility accommodating male and female incarcerated individuals under federal custody. The majority of MDC Brooklyn individuals face charges for committing crimes in the Eastern District of New York. As of 2019, the facility had about 1,641 individuals of various security categories, although it was initially designed to house 1,000 individuals. However, alongside a second adjacent facility for individuals who have already been convicted and are awaiting placement, the overall capacity is almost 3,000 people. This makes MDC Brooklyn the country’s biggest detention institution.
Notable Individuals
Abid Naseer
An extradition order was issued from the United Kingdom in 2012 on accusations that AbidNaseer participated in an international conspiracy to carry out bombing strikes throughout the United States and Europe. He has been serving his 40-year prison term in federal custody since 2015. Between 2010 and 2012, three of his co-conspirators were found guilty and sentenced to prison.
Linda Weston
Found guilty in 2013 on accusations of murder, racketeering, hate crimes, and other offenses. She was heading a gang that kept people suffering from mental disorders against their will to grab their social security payments between 2001 and 2011, with two of them dying due to the mistreatment.
6ix 9ine
Daniel Hernandez, famously identified as 6ix9ine, is an American rapper. Alongside other gang members, he was charged with firearm offenses and racketeering. The rapper first denied the allegations against him during his 2019 trial but later accepted a guilty plea deal. He was to testify against other gang members in return for a reduced sentence after facing a potential penalty of life in prison if he had gone to trial.
He brought the activities of the former members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods to the public’s attention. The rapper was found guilty of racketeering, firearm possession, and assault with a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy to commit murder, among the counts brought against him.
R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly has been in federal custody for questioning concerning sexual misconduct and abuse charges, frequently with young females, since the 1990s, which he denies. He was incriminated with several counts of child pornography in 2002 but was acquitted in 2008. Surviving R. Kelly, a Lifetime documentary series that aired in January 2019, revealed accusations of sexual abuse by several women, which Kelly denies. RCA Records dismissed R. Kelly after public outcry through the #MuteR. Kelly hashtag.
Kelly was charged with ten counts of severe criminal sexual abuse on February 22, 2019. He was detained on federal accusations of sex offenses, human trafficking, child pornography, racketeering, and obstruction of justice on July 11, 2019. Kelly faces a total of 22 federal allegations as of January 29, 2021, including child pornography, abduction, and forced labor leading to his incarceration.
Services and Programs Available in MDC Brooklyn
Psychological Services
MDC Brooklyn’s Psychology Department offers mental disease treatment to individuals who have a history of mental illness or have difficulties adapting to their new surroundings. The facility has onsite Personnel on certain floors to respond more quickly to mental-health problems that arise among individuals. In non-emergency circumstances, convicts must submit a “Personnel Request Form” to the Psychology Department for consideration. After admission, the facility keeps the Medicines for people with a mental health condition on view. If it is determined that mental medicine is required, the prisoner is scheduled to see a psychiatrist. MDC Brooklyn has professionals in counseling psychology to offer the services to the individuals in the facility. Individuals with mental disorders resulting from drug and substance abuse, stress, depression, and anger may sign up for the services.
Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP)
MDC Brooklyn does not provide a Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program (RDAP). However, there is a drug education class and the Non-Residential Drug Abuse Program (NR-DAP). This is a 12-week Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) therapy program that happens in a group environment. The program addresses criminal lifestyles and offers skill development opportunities in logical thinking, effective communication, and institution/community transition. This program is for:
- Individuals serving short sentences.
- Those not eligible for the Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program (RDAP).
- Individuals considering the transition to the community.
- Individuals’ whose urine sample tests positive.
Education Services
MDC Brooklyn offers GED and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and other educational opportunities. Individuals willing to earn High school diplomas and post-secondary degrees may pay for correspondence programs.
However, MDC Brooklyn does not offer vocational training and advanced occupational education in the facility.
Library Services
People have access to both a recreational library and a legal library. The Education Department allows the use of legal books as a source of information. However, the books should remain in the campus library at all times. The Education Department has a copying machine, and individuals may use it by buying copy notes from the commissary. Individuals may check out recreational books from the main libraries during library sessions on each level. However, the special housing units’ residents can only obtain recreational literature by completing the correct application form.
Recreational Services
Indoor and outdoor facilities make up the MDC Brooklyn Recreation Department. This entails participation in planned and unorganized games and sports, wellness activities, curricular and extracurricular activities, social activities, artwork, physical fitness. Additionally, table and board games are all examples of leisure activities.
The Commissary
Individuals have the freedom to spend money on the approved commissary items. They can purchase these items as long as they have some money in their commissary accounts. Ideally, the Federal Bureau of Prison permits individuals in their facilities to use up to $90 each week on ordinary and special items. You can check out the list of the available approved commissary items here.
How to Send Money to Individuals in Prison
One of the most important things you can do for a person in jail is to provide financial assistance. With some cash in their jail accounts, they can access commissary items and pay for calls and postage. The prison typically supplies each individual with the essentials such as clothing, hygiene supplies, and three meals per day. However, for any level of comfort, some commissary items are necessary. BOP-run correctional facilities have a distinct way through which you can send money. To know more about this, check out this incredible article that we have prepared for you:
Incarcerated individuals must conduct all transactions via their jail accounts since the bureau does not permit individuals to possess money whatsoever.
Like other federal facilities, MDC Brooklyn allows the following means of money transfer to inmate commissary accounts:
MoneyGram
MDC Brooklyn residents can receive money through MoneyGram. This entity enables users to transfer money to anybody, anywhere, including federal prisons, through their MoneyGram’s Express Payment Program enables.
With this program, you can send money to your loved one in this facility any day of the week, including during federal holidays. Transactions are available between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST, and it takes just 2-4 hours to get the funds into an individual’s account. However, funds submitted after 9:00 p.m. EST will be credited at 7:00 a.m.
US Postal Service
You can send money to an individual at this facility through the US Postal Service. MDC Brooklyn accepts money orders and checks. However, you have to include the recipient’s full name and registration number. Ideally, cash orders take approximately 15 days to process. And this avenue does not support personal checks or cash.
The Western Union
Western Union facilitates money transfer to this prison via their Quick Collect Program. With this program, processing of payments is available throughout the week, including weekends and holidays. However, the funds have to be sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST. The funds submitted past 9:00 p.m. are uploaded the next morning at 7:00 a.m. Visit https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/inmatehome.html for further information.
Emails and calls
The federal prison system encourages people to communicate with loved ones through authorized avenues, including phone and email. As such, individuals at MDC Brooklyn may call their loved ones and attorneys for a limited time during the approved hours. However, the calls are either self-sponsored through individual call accounts or collect calls paid for by the recipients. For security reasons, these modes of communication are monitored by the relevant prison staff.
How to send a package
Imprisoned persons at MDC Brooklyn cannot receive packages without authorization. Moreover, they are strict limitations to the packages they can receive. Ideally, the facility only allows medical equipment and clothing for individuals nearing their release dates. The institution often considers any items found in a detainee’s possession, not from the administration or the commissary, as contraband, and dire consequences result for such an individual.
