(NewsNation) — Sean “Diddy” Combs has been transferred to a low-security federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey, and has been granted an expedited appeal, which broadens the chance he could be free before his release 2028 date.
Combs was moved from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he’s been housed since his 2024 arrest and conviction for prostitution-related charges late last month.
He was sentenced to 50 months on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution under the Mann Act. He was acquitted of more serious racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
His defense team had long argued that conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn are not safe and that he needs to be moved to a lower-risk facility.
Combs’ attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment by NewsNation.
The MDC has been described as “hell on Earth,” and Combs’ attorneys had long tried to get him moved out of the facility.
In a letter to the judge asking for bail prior to sentencing, his defense team wrote that “there is a significant issue at the MDC related to the safety of employees and incarcerated individuals that require outside law enforcement action from multiple agencies to address.”
“The food is inedible, from what I’ve been told,” Combs attorney Marc Agnifilo told reporters after his conviction. “It’s way too hot in summer; sometimes there’s no heat at all. In the winter, the toilet water has been known to freeze. It’s violent. Someone like Mr. Combs might be a target for certain things. We can’t let that happen.”
Diddy wins fast-track appeal
Combs was granted his request to expedite the appeals process by Judge Beth Robinson in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday, according to a court order obtained by NewsNation.
This broadens the possibility Combs could see freedom prior to his expected May 2028 release date shown in online records from the Bureau of Prisons.
The 2028 date reflects time already served, as well as the Bureau of Prisons’ First Step Act, which allows federal inmates to earn “good time credit” for each year of their sentence, potentially leading to serving 85% of their time.
In their request for an expedited appeal, Combs’ attorneys said he has already served approximately 14 months of his sentence and that an expedited appeal would “ensure that Mr. Combs could meaningfully benefit from any appellate ruling vacating his sentence.”
“Mr. Combs expects to challenge both his conviction and sentence in his appeal. An
expedited briefing and argument schedule is critical to ensure that Mr. Combs’s appeal of his
sentence does not become moot while the appeal is pending,” his attorneys wrote in their request.
In her order, Robinson gave an expedited schedule where oral arguments can begin as early as April.