What Trump would face if he’s jailed
Authorities mum on details of detention
On Monday, former President Donald Trump was threatened with jail time if he continues violating a gag order in his New York hush money trial.
“Mr. Trump, it’s important to understand that the last thing I want to do is to put you in jail,” said Judge Juan Merchan. However, “your continued violations of this court’s lawful order threaten to interfere with the administration of justice in constant attacks, which constitute a direct attack on the rule of law.”
But if warnings and $1,000 fines for each infraction − Trump has racked up 10 so far − continue to prove too weak a deterrent for the billionaire, where would Trump actually be jailed?
The answer could make a big difference in the unpleasantness of the experience. Experts say the world’s highestprofile detainee could be held briefly in a cell near the courtroom – or potentially for days in a jail on notorious Rikers Island.
Trump is unlikely to go to Rikers, but even the more probable scenario of a brief stay in a courthouse cell would be unprecedented.
“It puts us in Bizarro World,” said James Oleson, a criminology professor at the University of Auckland, who served as a staffer on the U.S. Judicial Conference’s criminal law committee.
Trump told reporters Monday he might be willing to be jailed to keep offering comments like calling his former lawyer Michael Cohen a “disgraced attorney and felon.”
“Our Constitution is much more important than jail,” Trump said, arguing his right to free speech is being violated. “It’s not even close. I’d do that sacrifice any day.”
Authorities prepare for ‘any possible contingency’
Authorities were mum about the details of how Trump would be detained, if it came to that.
“Since the very beginning of these proceedings, the court system’s Public Safety officials have worked with their law enforcement partners in order to be prepared for any possible contingency,” Al Baker, a spokesperson for the state Office of Court Administration, said in a statement.
“The Department would find appropriate housing for him if he winds up in our custody,” Patrick Rocchio, a spokesperson for the Department of Correction, said in a statement.
Like all ex-presidents, Trump is protected by the Secret Service, creating logistical challenges. The Secret Service would play a key role in any incarceration of Trump − however long or temporary, said Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the agency.
Already, Guglielmi said, the Secret Service’s New York office, in conjunction with Trump’s protective team, has “worked very closely” with the New York Police Department and court officers to plan all aspects of his appearances for the trial. It has plans in place for whatever type of contempt scenario could occur, he said.
It’s not just where Trump would stay, Guglielmi said. Secret Service agents, for instance, would need to look at evat erybody – and everything – that might come in contact with Trump, including the staff and even the food.
“All of those steps are very carefully choreographed,” Guglielmi said. “We examine the universe of options that could be available to us and try to have options for almost anything that could arise.”
The corrections options
In increasing measures of severity, Trump could be detained for an hour or two in a cell behind Merchan’s courtroom on the 15th floor of the courthouse in lower Manhattan or for days in a cell at a federal lockup or on Rikers Island.
Oleson, the criminology professor, said putting Trump in a cell for an hour might not be more effective than fines, whereas the “theater of being sanctioned and sentenced” to jail on Rikers Island might serve as a greater deterrent because of the reputation and stigma attached to it, he said.
Ronald Kuby, a veteran New York defense lawyer who has visited clients in city jails and also spent time in them for various acts of protest, said Trump is unlikely to enjoy any detention.
Holding cells adjacent to courtrooms can hold two or three people and are claustrophobic, with one tiny window most and a large metal door “that slams shut with a mighty clang,” Kuby said.
“They are meant for short habitation,” Kuby said. “They have a toilet. They’ve got a bench. And that’s about it.”
If ordered held overnight at the courthouse, Trump could be housed in “the veritable rabbit warren of cells that feed into the specific holding cells for the various courtrooms,” including some larger holding areas, Kuby said.
For longer stays, Manhattan’s longtime central booking complex known as The Tombs is no longer an option because it closed. But Trump could be ordered held in the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, where Jeffrey Epstein died, or a federal lockup in Brooklyn.
The least likely scenario, according to Kuby, would be Rikers, on the East River in the Bronx. The city’s largest jail has room for a VIP detainee with a Secret Service entourage but could be terrifying for a germophobe like Trump, Kuby said.
“It’s such a giant, sprawling, fallingdown massive complex of horror, there’s always a place to stick somebody,” Kuby said.
Rikers Island, which has 10 detention facilities, is scheduled to close in 2027. It has been the subject of numerous critical reports for unsanitary and dangerous conditions. At least 31 people have died in custody since January 2022, according to advocacy groups.
“It’s a bad experience,” Kuby told USA TODAY. “Trust me. I’ve been there.”
Specifically, experts said Trump could be housed in the West Facility, which has individual cells for detainees. That’s where former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is serving a five-month perjury sentence for lying during Trump’s civil fraud trial.
Trump would likely avoid the food at Rikers, “which by all accounts is excruciatingly bad,” Kuby added.
“Trump is not going to be in with other prisoners. He’s undoubtedly not going to get the regular meal service. But he will be behind bars and cannot leave,” Kuby said.