R. Kelly is suing a Brooklyn detention center after being placed on suicide watch.
The disgraced R&B superstar has filed a lawsuit against Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is serving his 30-year sentence, claiming they are subjecting him to “cruel and unusual punishment” by wrongly placing him on suicide watch because he is a “high-profile” inmate.
According to TMZ, Kelly was put on suicide watch this week after he received his sentence. However, he said he has no intention of harming himself and “expressly told MDC officials that he was not suicidal.”
He has reportedly been placed in a single cell with no bed rails, no showers, and no toilet paper, claiming that the “harsh conditions” have led to “severe mental distress.” He is seeking $100 million in damages per a report from Reuters.
“Simply put, MDC Brooklyn is run like a gulag,” said Kelly’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean, who was informed by the jail’s legal counsel that Kelly was “on a psych alert for various reasons, such as age, crime, publicity, and sentencing.”
Kelly likens his situation to Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was also placed on suicide watch after receiving her 20-year prison sentence.
Earlier this week, a judge sentenced the 55-year-old singer to 30 years in prison after being convicted on all nine counts in his sex trafficking case. Once released, he will have to undergo mental health counseling including therapy for an unspecified sexual disorder.