SBF detention environment: overcrowding, no heating, poor lighting

Odaily Planet Daily News Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is currently living in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, one of the most notorious correctional facilities in the United States. SBF has been living in jail for six weeks after losing his bail, with prison conditions a far cry from the former billionaire's old Caribbean home "The internet is slow, the living quarters are filthy, and the cafeteria has few supplies. The SBF survives on bread and water, sometimes peanut butter," SBF's lawyers said. The Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center is a large two-building prison complex that houses more than 1,600 male and female inmates, many of whom are still awaiting trial. Prisoners currently in custody also include former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges, and Chinese businessman Guo Wengui, who has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. An orientation manual for the facility shows that inmates wake up at 6 a.m. and must make beds, mop floors and pick up trash. From there, inmates like SBF may go to work around the prison, serving as prep cooks in the prison kitchen, providing janitorial services throughout the complex, or assisting in the prison's maintenance shop. At 11 a.m. they have lunch. Dinner was served at 4 p.m. The meal was supposed to include meats such as turkey, starch such as rice, and vegetables or fruit, but inmates were actually eating cold cuts, sandwich bread, moldy pound cake and other "unidentifiable foods" from the kitchen ”, SBF is a vegetarian, and if he doesn’t like the food served in the cafeteria, he can use his weekly $150 concession stand allowance to buy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, worth $3.65 each. According to the rules of the complex, he can buy up to two of them per day. Prisoners can rest. However, the detention center has no areas for recreational activities. SBF will have to hang out with his fellow inmates in an indoor community room where they can play cards, chat and watch TV. Rooms in dormitories and prisons are kept in semi-darkness 24 hours a day, and prisoners can often be heard shouting loudly in their cells throughout the night. Many areas of the detention center lack heating, and most facilities have few air conditioning units. At the end of each day, SBFs may end up in communal dormitories with rows of bunk beds. However, it is also possible that he has been placed in protective custody and given his own separate room. (CoinDesk)