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Martin Shkreli Currently Experiencing The 'Worst Prison That He'll Ever Be In'
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 15, 2017
Modified Sep 15, 2017
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 15, 2017
Modified Sep 15, 2017
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Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical executive convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, is now Inmate #87850-053 at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center. The 34-year-old had his $5 million bail revoked after offering $5,000 to anyone who could pluck a hair from Hillary Clinton's head, sending him to what a NY Post source called "the worst prison that he’ll ever be in, considering the charges he was convicted of," referring to the white collar charges.
Federal Defenders' Deirdre von Dornum described the facility to the Post, "He’s going to be in total shock. It’s freezing cold right now. The inmates are wearing hats and are wrapped in towels to keep themselves warm, because [officials] keep the air conditioning up for some reason... In the winter, it often gets very hot."
Defense attorney Arthur Aidala agreed that the conditions are terrible, telling the Daily Mail, "It's not a rehabilitative facility. There's no schooling there, there's no classes there. The worst part is there's no real outdoors space... It's just a place to warehouse human beings."
In 2008, Rafaello Follieri, one-time boyfriend of Anne Hathaway, was moved to the Brooklyn facility after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. His lawyer asked that he be moved back to a Manhattan jail, because Follieri's health "deteriorated significantly" due to the "unspeakably harsh conditions at the MDC." The Smoking Gun reports that the lawyer Flora Edwards "cite[d] overcrowding, 'unspeakably unsanitary' toilet and shower facilities, and an 'intolerable' stench. Rats, Edwards added, are 'roaming freely' and there is 'excrement in the shower.' As a result, Follieri, 30, has supposedly been left 'debilitated,' with blood in his urine, glassy eyes, and intestinal problems."
Before the bail, during which prosecutors claimed that his social media remarks were dangerous (a judge agreed), Shkreli had bragged to a Gizmodo reporter that he wouldn't be thrown in jail for the Clinton hair remark, "I believe there will be no sentence of imprisonment. Please read the USSG and learn something about the law."
The sister of a man imprisoned at MDC had some advice for Shkreli, via the Post: "It all depends on how you present yourself here. If you gonna be arrogant, you’re going to be treated a certain way."
Tagged
brooklyn
federal lockup
jail
martin shkreli
Metropolitan Detention Center
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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