R. Kelly sues detention centre after being placed in a suicide watch
R Kelly handed 30-year prison sentence
A few days after R&B singer R Kelly was sent to prison after he was found guilty in the sexualassault case, the 55-year-old is now suing the detention centre in Brooklyn where he has been placed on a suicide watch.
Reacting to the Metropolitan Detention Center's decision on putting the disgraced singer on a suicide watch, his lawyer said via People, that it was for "purely punitive reasons" because Kelly is a "high-profile inmate."
The attorney also added that it violates his Eighth Amendment rights. In the court document obtained, the singer's lawyer has claimed that he's not suicidal and that it is a "cruel and unusual punishment," as per People.
They also claimed that suicide watch is so harsh that it "can and does cause serious mental harm" to a non-suicidal inmate.
R&B superstar R. Kelly's notorious history of sex allegations and convictions
"Inmates are stripped of their clothing and underwear and dressed in a smock made of material that is akin to the material that moving companies use when wrapping furniture," the complaint says, before adding that "they are typically placed in a single cell without bed rails and offered no items of comfort."
"And of course, they are monitored 24-7 by prison officials. Ironically, individuals on 'suicide watch' don't even receive psychiatric care."
"MDC has a policy of placing high profile individuals under the harsh conditions of suicide watch whether they are suicidal or not (this was done recently with Ghislaine Maxwell)," Kelly's lawyer Jennifer Bonjean told People magazine.
The singer was found guilty on all nine charges he faced, and the punishment was announced by Judge Ann Donnelly in the Brooklyn federal court.
"The verdict is in: R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years," the US attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York said in a tweet. The prosecutors asked for at least 25 years in prison for the disgraced singer as they believed that he "poses a serious danger to the public."
