What to Know
- The last inmates housed at MCC were transferred to the other facilities as part of a planned deactivation, a DOJ spokesperson confirmed
- The last few inmates had afternoon court appearances and then were set to be transferred to MDC - Brooklyn once those hearings ended.
- Once hailed as a prototype for a new kind of federal jail and the most secure in the country, conditions at the MCC badly deteriorated to the point that DOJ said it would close for much-needed repairs
The last inmates housed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan have been transferred out, leaving the federal jail known for notorious inmates like El-Chapo and Jeffrey Epstein with empty cells, a Department of Justice spokesperson confirmed to News 4 Tuesday.
The last few inmates had afternoon court appearances and then were set to be transferred to MDC - Brooklyn once those hearings ended.
Once hailed as a prototype for a new kind of federal jail and the most secure in the country, conditions at the Metropolitan Correctional Center have badly deteriorated.
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The Justice Department said in August it would close the jail to undertake much-needed repairs — and a department spokesperson said Tuesday the Bureau of Prisons had concluded the transfer required as part of that planned deactivation.
Inmates were mainly transferred to the MDC Brooklyn facility, as well as a limited number of other appropriate facilities, the spokesperson said. MCC employees, including health services staff, are being temporarily assigned to the MDC Brooklyn facility, and many are expected to transition into permanent positions there.
"The Department remains committed to ensuring that every facility in the federal prison system is not only safe and secure, but also provides people in custody with the resources and programs they need to make a successful return to society after they have served their time," the DOJ statement continued.
It's not clear if the lower Manhattan jail will ever reopen.
The Metropolitan Correctional Center has housed a slew of famously well-known criminals — El Chapo, John Gotti, Bernie Madoff, and some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Prisoners are held at the jail as they await their trials or transfers to other federal prisons after conviction.
It has held close to 900 inmates in the past. Wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, an accused pedophile and sex trafficker, killed himself there in August 2019.
His death exposed a slew of problems inside the jail, and that list has only grown; the rampant spread of the coronavirus, the squalid conditions, a loaded gun smuggled in and other inmates' deaths.
