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Sean “Diddy” Combs may have a chance to reduce his prison sentence through a drug abuse program.
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Combs was sentenced to more than four years behind bars on prostitution-related charges.
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His judge will recommend that he be jailed near New York and considered for prison drug programs.
Sean “Diddy” Combs could reduce up to 12 months from his more than four-year prison sentence.
Combs’ sentencing judge in Manhattan has offered to recommend that the 55-year-old hip-hop mogul be considered for any available substance abuse programs while he is incarcerated.
In a letter to Combs’ attorneys made public late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian specified the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Drug Abuse Program.
RDAP is an intensive nine-month, 500-hour substance abuse treatment program for inmates. Completing it could entitle Combs to an early release from behind bars for up to a full year, prison consultants told Business Insider.
“A lot of people quit; they find it difficult,” said Justin Paperny, a former inmate whose consultancy, White Collar Advice, advises clients before and after sentencing. “But it helps correct your thinking (wrong thinking, bad decisions) and helps you work on overcoming addiction. Many love the program.”
Subramanian sentenced Combs last week to four years and two months in prison after the rapper was found guilty of prostitution-related charges for transporting male escorts across state lines for drug-fueled sexual encounters with ex-girlfriends.
Combs has been locked up in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his indictment in September 2024, and his time there will count toward his overall sentence.
In a letter to Subramanian earlier this week, Combs’ attorney, Teny Geragos, requested that the court “strongly recommend” to the Bureau of Prisons that Combs be transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix, a low-security facility in New Jersey.
FCI Fort Dix, located more than 70 miles from New York City, offers the RDAP that Geragos suggested would be beneficial to Combs.
The judge said in his order Wednesday that he will recommend a prison in the geographic location of Combs’ choice, but not the specific facility. He will leave that determination to the BOP, he said.
Subramanian said he will recommend to BOP that Combs “be incarcerated as close to the New York metropolitan area as possible” and be considered for entry into any substance abuse program “for which he qualifies.”
At Combs’ trial, his defense attorneys blamed the music mogul’s violent side on his drug use.
As part of his request to file a sentence for time served, Combs, in a letter to Subramanian, defended his newfound sobriety.
“Although this situation has been the most difficult and dark time of my life, good things have come from my incarceration,” Combs wrote in the letter. “To start, I am now sober for the first time in 25 years. I have been doing the best I can to deal with my drug abuse and anger issues and take responsibility and take positive steps toward healing.”
Subramanian chastised Combs for his “serious” crimes at the sentencing hearing, but told him, “You’re going to get through this.”
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” the judge said.
A judge’s recommendation for prison substance abuse programs is always helpful, but there are still other administrative hurdles to overcome to gain admission to programs like RDAP and earn that year off, Paperny said.
The BOP has the discretion to deny early release to any inmate whose sentence involves any element of violence and weapons possession, he said.
Paperny predicted that the BOP will weigh a number of factors, including the judge’s recommendation, but that the key factor will be any description of violence or weapons that may be in Combs’ probation report, which is not a public document.
“A lot of this comes down to the discretion of the Bureau of Prisons,” he said.
The BOP and Combs’ attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read the original article on Business Insider