Sean “Diddy” Combs has been transferred to solitary confinement at a federal prison in New Jersey after a bombshell report exposed the disgraced music mogul living in luxury behind bars. The move came swiftly after NBC News published an investigation Tuesday detailing the high-end lifestyle Combs had allegedly been maintaining inside Fort Dix federal prison.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Combs was removed from his dormitory-style housing and placed in a Special Housing Unit, commonly known as the SHU. The Bureau of Prisons declined to confirm or deny the transfer, citing privacy and security policies.
NBC News spoke with four former inmates who shared the same unit as Combs. They described a setup where Combs was spending thousands of dollars monthly to replicate a life of privilege inside the low-security facility. He allegedly paid fellow inmates to cook his meals, clean bathrooms before he used them, do his laundry, make his bed, and give him massages.
Sources told NBC News that contraband items including cellphones and premium liquor such as Hennessy were also part of his daily routine. Video footage obtained by NBC News appeared to show Combs using a contraband phone inside the facility.
Combs arrived at Fort Dix in October after being sentenced to 50 months in prison following a conviction for transporting individuals across state lines for sexual encounters. His trial ended in a split verdict, with a jury acquitting him on the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
This is not the first time Combs has landed in the SHU at Fort Dix. He was previously placed in solitary last summer following a physical altercation with another inmate and was later removed from a drug treatment program at the facility.
Vito Maraviglia, a retired Bureau of Prisons investigator who once worked at Fort Dix, said the prison is widely considered one of the most lenient in the federal system. He noted its segmented layout makes monitoring inmates and contraband significantly more difficult than at other facilities.
“A high-profile guy like that, with all that money, I’m surprised they put him at a place like Fort Dix” Maraviglia said.
Prominent attorney Gloria Allred, who represents a woman suing Combs for alleged sexual assault, called for an immediate federal investigation into the contraband allegations. Inmates held in the SHU are confined to a cell for at least 23 hours per day with severely restricted access to commissary items and other privileges.