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As Sean 'Diddy' Combs settles into Fort Dix, Us speaks with former inmates who paint a stark picture of life inside. Plus, how the disgraced music mogul is faring so far

- Nicholas Hautman, Ryan Naumann, Andrea Simpson & Whitney Vasquez

They say every picture tells a story.

On Nov. 7, TMZ posted a photo of Sean “Diddy” Combs at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey. In the images, the disgraced music mogul looks surprisingly at ease: Dressed in a gray sweatsuit, a matching beanie (and beard) and a blue jacket and black sneakers, he smiled and socialized in a circle of six men in the prison yard.

Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison in early October following his July conviction on two counts of transportation for prostitution. (He was acquitted on the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy following his eight-week trial, during which his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane claimed they were forced to participate in days-long, drug-fueled “freak offs.”)

The rapper, 56, was transferred from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to Fort Dix — a low-security facility that houses roughly 4,000 prisoners — on Oct. 30. Combs, who’s still worth an estimated $400 million and owns homes in Miami, L.A. and NYC, now lives in dorm-room style lodgings with nine other men. And he's already been put to work: his spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, told Us on Nov. 11 that Combs is currently on duty in the chapel library.

While his new digs may be an upgrade from the notoriously dangerous MDC (where he was incarcerated since his September 2024 arrest), it’s a far cry from his cushy, pre-prison life. “Someone may be powerful or rich on the outside,” says Bill Baroni, a Seton Hall Law School professor who spent three months in lockup, “but in prison, everyone is alike.”

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