Convicted sex predator R Kelly is being kept on suicide watch for his own safety.
The US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn told the court the disgraced R&B superstar will stay under the supervision following a psychological assessment.
Assistant US attorney Melanie Speight said his “current life circumstances undoubtedly bring emotional distress”.
She said: “He is a convicted sex offender who has been sentenced to spend the next three decades in prison.
“In the immediate future, he faces a federal criminal trial in Chicago for charges related to child pornography.”
The New York Times reported that a staff psychologist at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn first placed Kelly on suicide watch after his sentencing last Wednesday, when a psychiatric review determined he was clinically at risk of harming himself.
Kelly, 55, has been at the MDC since being sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking and racketeering.
Inmates on suicide watch are required to wear paper smocks and can be stripped of utensils and forced to eat with their hands.
Kelly’s legal team say the “harsh” conditions have done irreparable harm to the I Believe I Can Fly hitmaker, and on Friday branded the MDC a “gulag”–style prison as they declared they were suing the institution.
They said the monitoring was violating Kelly’s rights by imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, will face another trial in Chicago on August 22, on charges that he produced child pornography and lured minors into sex acts.