History
It opened in the early 1990s over opposition from neighbors and local elected officials.[2] Critics feared that the jail, with its staff, inmates, visitors, and supply deliveries would overburden neighborhood traffic and water and sewer systems.[3]The federal detention center was built to hold 1,000 inmates.[2]
It was built to hold prisoners awaiting arraignments or trials in Federal courts.[2] The center was built mainly to serve the Federal courts of the Eastern District of New York, which includes Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island.[2] But it also can be used to hold prisoners awaiting trial or arraignment in the Southern District of New York, including Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester, and five upstate New York counties.[2]
In 1999, a second facility (the West Side) was opened adjacent to the original complex (the East Side) to house federal inmates in-transit/holdover (those inmates who have already been sentenced and are on their way to another institution), bringing the total number of inmates being housed at the institution to close to 3,000.
In order to run the largest detention center in the country, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) opened a prison camp within the confines of the institution. Currently, over 300 "cadres" (so called "campers") are designated at MDC in order to maintain the facilities and feed the 3,000 or so inmates.
