Rikers Island jail: Strauss-Kahn's new home
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IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will trade in tailored suits for jump suits as he spends the next few nights in Rikers Island jail, a notorious New York holding facility for those awaiting trial.
"He will be in a single person cell and kept away from other inmates," a New York City Department of Corrections spokesman told AFP. "He goes to Rikers to sleep tonight. He might already be there."
The New York jail is a chaotic maze of holding cells filled with thousands of defendants who either can't afford bail or who, like Strauss-Kahn, are deemed a flight risk and have had their bail application denied.
The complex, which sits on a 400-acre (1,650 kilometer) island on the East River near LaGuardia airport between Queens and the Bronx, can house more than 20,000 detainees and staff at a time.
The Department of Corrections spokesman said Strauss-Kahn would not have to remain in his cell at all times, but anytime that he was outside his cell, "he would be accompanied by correction officers."
Rikers Island is the city's main detention facility and includes 10 separate jails where prisoners are segregated by gender and age.
There are no prisons for long-term detainees in New York and most of the city's 13,000 jail inmates - awaiting trial or serving short sentences - are at Rikers, according to the Department of Corrections' website.
Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested Saturday on alleged sexual assault charges, was denied bail at a packed hearing in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday.
The one-time expected French presidential candidate, wearing a long black raincoat and accompanied by a team of lawyers, looked haggard and stunned by the rapid developments. His lawyers have denied all charges.
The alleged assault in a posh suite at New York's Sofitel hotel took place at around 1 pm Saturday. Less than four hours later, Strauss-Kahn was whisked off the first class section of an Air France jet by police.
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