Maduro Prison: Hellhole Conditions & Overcrowding

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is being locked up in a ‘hellhole’ prison where inmates have described rampant violence, raw sewage filtering into their cells and punishing lockdowns

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is being held in a ‘hell on Earth’ prison in the US after being captured by Donald Trumpit has emerged.

The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York has been branded “hell on earth” by inmates, lawyers, and even federal judges in the past due to rampant violence, ‘barbaric’ living conditions, and severe understaffing within the confines the nine-story prison.

The jail has housed a number of high-profile inmates – including from Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell – and is currently being used to detain Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro as he awaits drug trafficking charges following his dramatic seizure by US forces.

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‘Lawless’ prison where violence is common among inmates

The MDC is frequently described as dangerous and badly supervised, with former inmates and lawyers speaking of a “vicious cycle” of violence. In 2024 alone, two inmates were killed and many more were injured in violent brawls, with staffing so limited that guards are often absent from units, leaving inmates vulnerable.

And last February, a massive brawl between rival prison gangs saw one prisoner stabbed 18 times in the back, while nine other inmates suffered stab or slash wounds during the same fight. Judges have spoken of an an “environment of lawlessness” where gangs can operate openly, with inmates often aligning themselves with violent groups to protect themselves from attacks.

‘Barbaric’ living conditions and overcrowding

While designed for approximately 1,000 inmates, the Brooklyn routinely holds between 1,200 and 1,600, causing a ‘catastrophic’ overcrowding crisis. In 2019, a power cut left inmates freezing in the dark for a week during the freezing New York winter, while inmates have spoken of ongoing issues in their cells including broken toilets, brown water coming from taps, and mould-infested showers.

There are also many reports of maggots in prison food, cockroach infestations in cells, and backups of raw sewage. In a complaint to prison authorities, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell complained of sharing her cell with rodents and the smell of the sewage while being kept at the prison.

Inmates kept in cells during frequent lockdowns

To manage the staff shortages and violence, prison bosses implement facility-wide lockdowns, forcing inmates to stay in their cells for days or weeks at a time without access to showers, phone calls, legal visits, or exercise. Inmates have said this creates a form of solitary confinement – a punishment usually imposed on individual prisoners for violent behaviour – and adds to the ongoing cycle of violence through its psychological impact.

Prisoners ‘not treated for heart attacks’

Medical care at the prison has been slammed as “nonexistent”, with the facility operating at times with only one or two doctors for over 1,200 inmates. Inmates suffering serious medical emergencies, like seizures or heart attacks, have been ignored because emergency call buttons in cells were broken or disabled, with lawyers also describing cases where cancer diagnoses were botched or delayed until it was too late.