Sean “Diddy” Combs’ has entered the low-security New Jersey prison that his legal team requested for him, where he is expected to spend the remainder of his 50-month sentence.
Combs’ sensational eight-week federal trial this summer ended with him acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, but found guilty on two counts of transportation for prostitution, in violation of the Mann Act. He was sentenced on Oct. 3 to four years and two months in prison, made to pay a $500,000 fine and will have five years probation upon his release. On Thursday, the rapper-designer whose high-flying hip-hop lifestyle came crashing down 14 months ago with a federal raid on his homes and highly publicized arrest, entered Fort Dix facility, where he is expected to remain until May 2028.
Prior to his move, Combs was being held in a Brooklyn federal lockup since his September 2024 arrest, first awaiting his trial and subsequent sentencing. His attorneys had requested ahead of his sentencing that he be released on his 14 months already served. After he was handed 50 months, his attorneys then asked Judge Arun Subramanian to recommend to the Bureau of Prisons he be sent to Fort Dix’s Residential Drug Abuse Program. Defense Attorney Teny Geragos told the judge that if Combs could make use of the prison’s RDAP program, he would be able to “address drug abuse issues” while he could also “maximize family visitation and rehabilitative efforts.”
This request was initially rebuffed as as the federal judge who oversaw the trial and sentencing told the defense team on Oct. 8 that he could not honor any specific requests. This seemed to dash hopes of being sent to the coveted and cushier Ft. Dix facility.
“The Court will recommend a facility in the geographic location of the defense’s choosing, but not the specific facility, which is determined by the Bureau of Prisons,” Judge Subramanian declared.
The RDAP is a 9 to 12-month program that has the highly vetted candidates housed in a separate area of the prison from the general population, as former Real Housewives of New Jersey star Joe Giudice, who went through the program, told Fox recently. He emphasized that the program is highly sought after and is in no way admission given for Combs.
“You don’t just walk into a program, OK? There’s a waitlist, there’s other people,” he told the network.
According to the Bureau of Prisons, the RDAP is its most intensive treatment program; Cognitive behavioral therapy is used in a modified therapeutic community model where offenders experience living in a pro-social community, according to information on the BOP website. While undergoing the months-long program, offenders participate in half-day programming and half-day work, school, or vocational activities.
During his trial, Combs’ drug issues were mentioned several times from the witness stand. Cassie Ventura, Combs’ girlfriend for a decade and the prosecution’s star witness, told the court that in 2012, Combs overdosed on an opioid during a party at the Playboy Mansion; Ventrura said this occurred just after the two had a “freak off,” the notorious, often days-long sex and drugs marathons that he and his partner and male prostitutes would attend. Ventura maintained in her testimony that at times she was made to attend these events via coercion and blackmail, claims Combs has denied and was not found guilty of during his trial.
“I would say he was an addict,” Ventura told the court while being questioned on the matter directly.
Upon his arrest at the Park Hyatt hotel in Manhattan in September 2024, investigators found lubricant, $9,000 cash, a bottle of clonazepam and two small bags with pink powder; the powder tested positive for MDMA and ketamine, and was likely the drug tusi or “pink cocaine,” which typically contains these two substances and often others including cocaine, methamphetamine, oxycodone, caffeine and/or cathinones.
Combs had referenced heading to rehab in the May 2024 apology video that he released to stifle the firestorm that erupted after CNN aired leaked footage of his mercilessly breathing Ventura in the elevator vestibule in the Los Angeles InterContinental Hotel in 2016. Throughout the trial, Combs defense attorneys mentioned his newfound sobriety while in federal custody and told the judge he has turned a page in his life and will remain off of drugs moving forward.
Combs’ listed release date in May 2028 represents his full sentence. As part of the First Step Act, he has the opportunity to shave 15 percent off his sentence each year for good behavior.
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