MCC New York (Closed)
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York (MCC New York) was the federal jail in lower Manhattan, holding pretrial defendants for the Southern District of New York for nearly five decades. Opened in 1975 as one of the first high-rise federal jails, it became one of the most famous detention facilities in the world for the defendants it held, and then for the death of Jeffrey Epstein inside it. The Bureau of Prisons deactivated the facility in August 2021; it has not reopened.[1][2] This page is maintained as a historical record of the facility.
The facility
MCC New York stood at 150 Park Row, adjacent to the federal courthouses at Foley Square, and functioned as the intake point for the highest-profile federal prosecutions in the country. Across its history it held John Gotti, Bernie Madoff after his arrest, and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, whose confinement in its 10-South high-security unit was described in his trial as among the most restrictive in the federal system.[2] Conditions in the aging high-rise drew persistent criticism: chronic understaffing, vermin, plumbing failures, and units that defense lawyers argued were harsher than many prisons.[3]
The Epstein death
On August 10, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was found hanged in his cell in the 9-South Special Housing Unit while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The New York City medical examiner ruled the death a suicide. The Justice Department Inspector General found that the two officers assigned to his unit failed to conduct required rounds, slept on duty, and falsified logs; both were criminally charged.[1][2] The death, and the failures around it, made the jail a national symbol of the Bureau of Prisons' staffing and oversight crisis.
Closure
In August 2021, weeks after Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco toured the facility, the Justice Department announced MCC New York would be shut down, describing the closure as at least temporary while conditions were addressed. The last men were moved out that October, with most Southern District pretrial defendants sent across the river to MDC Brooklyn.[4][5] A 2022 Inspector General site visit classified the building as being in critical disrepair, with electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and security systems all requiring major renovation; no reopening date has been set.[3]
Legacy
MCC New York's closure shifted the weight of Manhattan federal detention onto MDC Brooklyn and left the federal courts of the Southern District without a jail next door for the first time in half a century. The building's fate, renovation or permanent abandonment, remains an open question.[3]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "U.S. Is Closing The Troubled NYC Jail Where Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself". NPR. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Metropolitan Correctional Center, NYC Jail Where Jeffrey Epstein Died, Is Crumbling". NBC New York. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ "Last inmates moved out of troubled New York jail where Jeffrey Epstein died". NBC News. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- ↑ "Metropolitan Correction Center where Jeffrey Epstein died closing". PIX11. Retrieved 2026-07-13.