What began as a bleak Thanksgiving for inmates at FCI Fort Dix turned into an unexpectedly warm celebration after Diddy organized and financed an inmate-led effort to provide meals throughout the facility.
According to his representative, Diddy partnered with an internal group known as Bankroll Bosses, purchasing food from the commissary, helping prepare it over two days and ensuring it reached every housing unit in the New Jersey prison.
Diddy told TMZ, “Thanksgiving, to me, is about making sure other people eat. Everybody misses their family. People get depressed during the holidays. We just wanted to come together as a family and do our own thing.”
While prisons typically provide only a minimal “in-and-out” meal for Thanksgiving, Combs and the group aimed to offer something more meaningful for their fellow inmates.
B.I., a former gang leader who helped coordinate the preparation, explained, “We cooked the food and sent it to all the buildings. Enough for about 200 people each building. It took two days to prep everything.” With no stoves or microwaves, inmates improvised by using items like ID cards to cut ingredients and make the best use of limited resources. The prison’s official Thanksgiving menu included turkey roast with trimmings, mashed potatoes, corn and dessert.
Diddy, who arrived at Fort Dix on October 30 to begin serving a 50-month sentence for violating the Mann Act, seems to be settling into prison life with a focus on building community. “There’s a lot of misinterpretations about prison. There is a strong brotherhood. We all look out for each other. It’s nothing but a positive thing,” he said. “It’s like a little bit of home in a dark place.”
