Just days after suing the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, R. Kelly has been removed from suicide watch, according to Pitchfork. Kelly had been placed on suicide watch for the first time in October 2021 after being convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking in a federal case tried in New York in September. However, Kelly sued the prison last week after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being placed under observation again, calling the suicide watch conditions “harmful and punitive.”
He claims that he did not have any thoughts of self-harm and believes the additional measures — wearing a thin smock and being denied eating utensils — were intended to further punish him. Kelly’s lawsuit pursued an unspecified “award of compensatory damages for all emotional distress, humiliation, pain and suffering, and other harm.” Meanwhile, MDC Brooklyn filed a memo on July 2 saying that a staff psychologist had recommended the suicide watch after an in-person assessment, noting that Kelly had been allowed to keep some “comfort items and personal effects.”
In addition to his 30-year prison sentence, Kelly was ordered to get treatment for an unspecified sexual disorder and will have five years of supervised release upon the completion of his sentence. In August, he’ll have another trial in Chicago — this time, for child pornography.
