From Private Jets to Prison Hooch: Diddy Caught with "Toilet Wine" in Prison | Sean Diddy Combs

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

Episode: From Private Jets to Prison Hooch: Diddy Caught with "Toilet Wine" in Prison | Sean Diddy Combs

Date: November 12, 2025
Host: Ashleigh Banfield
Notable Guest: Jean Borrello (former federal inmate)

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode dives into the remarkable turn in Sean "Diddy" Combs' life, from his immense wealth and celebrity status to his adjustment to federal prison life following his conviction on prostitution-related charges. Ashleigh Banfield investigates the prison scandal involving “toilet wine”—Diddy’s alleged involvement in brewing and consuming illicit prison alcohol—and unpacks the intricacies of prison culture, rules, and consequences. The episode features significant insight from Jean Borrello, a former federal inmate, who offers an insider’s perspective on prison alcohol, hierarchy, hustling, and adjustment.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Diddy's New Reality: "From Private Jets to Prison Hooch"

• Transition to Prison Life:

  • Diddy, days after beginning his more-than-four-year prison term, was reportedly caught with “prison hooch,” or “toilet wine.”
  • Banfield underscores the irony: “Sean Diddy Combs has officially traded designer suits and private jets for prison garb and toilet wine.” (00:57)

• Fascination with Toilet Wine:

  • Ashleigh openly admits her curiosity: “I have always been fascinated with toilet wine…how you actually make it and how on earth it could be hygienic if it's made in a toilet. Right? I'm not gonna lie, I've always wanted to know.” (01:17)

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2. Diddy's Early Prison Incidents & Status Changes

• Disciplinary Issues:

  • Diddy received disciplinary action for making an unauthorized “three-person call” in prison—known as “patching”—where a third, unauthorized party joins a call.
  • Prison officials recommended Diddy lose 90 days of phone privileges and commissary, coinciding with his 56th birthday. (04:08)
  • Notable quote: “Inmates are only allowed to talk to approved contacts...If you add multiple people to a call, that's something that's called patching. That is strictly forbidden.” (03:49)

• Legal Defense and Publicist’s Statement:

  • Diddy's publicist insisted the call was a procedural attorney-client matter and “he’s focused on growth and committed to positive change." (04:55)

• Rehabilitation and Privilege:

  • Diddy joined the Bureau of Prisons’ Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP), which can reduce sentences by up to a year, and began working as an assistant in the prison chapel (“a serious power position behind bars”). (09:34)
  • Chapel assistants prepare “call out lists”—determining who gets to leave their cell for programs.
  • Insight: “If you prepare the list, you're the guy that everybody wants to please. So, yeah, it is considered a serious power position behind bars.” (10:32)

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3. The Truth About "Toilet Wine": Myths, Methods, and Meaning

With guest Jean Borrello (13:10)

• Toilet Wine: Definition and Method

  • “It's called hooch…different ways to make it…with orange peels, sugar…If you don’t let it ‘breathe,’ it could actually be like a bomb. It can blow up.” (13:29)

  • Toilet wine is not brewed in the toilet bowl—but typically in garbage bags hidden in the toilet tank for concealment (not for hygiene or temperature reasons). (15:24)

    Jean Borrello: “They'll put it in the [garbage] bag and…let it sit in [the toilet tank]…they won't actually put it in the toilet bowl.” (15:24)

• Fermentation, Smell, and Trade:

  • The process takes days, the result “smells really bad”—thus the need for a clever hiding space. (15:50)
  • Making hooch is “a bona fide business behind bars”—inmates pay others to brew it, especially for special occasions. (16:20)

• Irony Not Lost:

  • Banfield notes: “Diddy may be the first prison inmate to be busted with toilet wine who once owned a vodka brand worth upwards of a billion dollars.” (11:17)

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4. Currency, Hustling, and Adjustment

• High-Profile Prisoners as "Big Business":

  • Jean Borrello reveals everyone with money becomes a target for hustlers in prison:

    “Everyone's so happy that he's [Diddy] in the jail right now because they see currency. So all they're doing right now is going up to his cell and trying to sell him everything that they have possible...” (17:04)

  • Even for Diddy: “They're all going to his cell, trying to sell something to him because they know he has money.” (17:16)

• Adjustment in First Weeks:

  • Banfield reads Diddy’s team's statement: “Any high-profile individual in a new environment…there will be many rumors and exaggerated stories throughout his time there, most of them untrue. We ask that people give him the benefit of the doubt, the privacy to focus on his personal growth with grace and purpose.” (17:38)
  • Borrello: “Everyone does [get in trouble early]…in the feds he’s hanging out with all the New York guys...they're all drinking hooch, they're all doing it.” (18:09)

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5. Consequences

• On Losing "Good Time":

  • Borrello clarifies the impact—a federal inmate can lose “good time” (sentence reduction for good behavior) and can’t get it back. (14:33)

    “The feds, once you lose it, you can't…because they will recommend days to be lost on this kind of ticket.” (14:33)

• Rehabilitation Program:

  • Diddy’s involvement in RDAP is at odds with the hooch allegations, possibly jeopardizing his eligibility for a sentence reduction.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ashleigh Banfield: “From champagne rooms to cell blocks, the fall does not get much steeper than that.” (18:41)
• Jean Borrello: “If you don’t let it ‘breathe,’ it could actually be like a bomb. So it actually can blow up and everything will spray...everywhere.” (13:36)
• Banfield (on prison hooch): “Toilet wine, on the other hand, is basically a fermented cocktail of Fanta sugar and apples. Different recipe, same result.” (12:18)
• Borrello on Diddy’s status: “All they're doing right now is going up to his cell and trying to sell him everything that they have possible, actually trying to get on salary with him to make his bed, clean his cell, go extra shopping for him…” (17:04)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:57 – Diddy's first days in prison; toilet wine scandal
• 03:21 – The three-person phone call and its implications
• 04:55 – Publicist’s statement and disciplinary consequences
• 09:34 – Diddy’s jobs and privileges in prison chapel
• 11:17 – Explanation: What is toilet wine and why it’s ironic for Diddy
• 13:10 – Jean Borrello explains all things prison hooch
• 14:33 – Losing “good time” and what that means in federal prison
• 15:24 – The step-by-step process (and myths) of making toilet wine
• 17:04 – Prison economy and why inmates hustle high-profile newcomers
• 18:09 – Social adjustment and who Diddy is likely hanging out with

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Tone and Style

Banfield’s irreverent, inquisitive style sets a conversational, story-driven tone throughout the episode, mixing journalistic curiosity with sardonic commentary: “Man, oh man. From champagne rooms to cell blocks, the fall does not get much steeper than that.” (18:41) Jean Borrello’s candor adds authenticity and detail, demystifying prison rituals for listeners.

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Conclusion

This episode gives an extensive, inside look at the realities facing Diddy in federal prison, illuminating both the mundane and the bizarre aspects—from discipline and rehabilitation to brewing illicit alcohol and navigating economic and social hierarchies among inmates. The central image of Diddy, a mogul who once fronted a vodka empire, now trading in "toilet wine," becomes a pointed symbol for the episode’s exploration of downfall, adaptation, and survival behind bars.

Transcript

[Ashley Banfield]

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[Ashley Banfield]

Hey everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield and this is drop dead serious Sean Diddy Combs has officially traded designer suits and private jets for prison garb and toilet wine. As reports say. Just days after being sentenced to more than four years behind bars on prostitution related charges, Diddy's new reality looks a lot different than the one he left behind. TMZ reports he's been caught with prison hooch, better known as toilet wine. I have always been fascinated with toilet wine, but I've never really understood like what it is, how you actually make it and how on earth it could be hygienic if it's made in a toilet. Right? I'm not gonna lie, I've always wanted to know. And now on this episode, I figured it out, I learned it and I've got everything you ever wanted to know about it. About how you make it step by step, how to keep it clean and actually why it's like really important in prison culture. Not just because you get loaded. It's currency. And all of this information comes from a friend of mine who did hard time with the feds and knows the ropes. He's got all the ins and outs of toilet wine and how it is a bona fide business behind bars. But I also have big news on Diddy himself. According to cbs, he's now working in the chapel and enrolled in the bureau of Prison's most intensive drug treatment program. Which is weird given the report he was caught drinking toilet wine, but okay. But I do wonder how the folks in the chapel are going to react to the latest trouble that allegedly found Diddy. CBS again reporting that within days of arriving at Fort Dix Prison. That's in New Jersey, it's the Fed prison. Diddy was already facing disciplinary action for an unauthorized phone call. Here's what the report says. On November 3, just again, four days after getting to his new home at Fort Dix, Diddy apparently made a three person call. And while you and I might think that's nothing, it is a major no, no in prison, all prisons, you can't do it. He says it was a conversation with his legal team about drafting a statement for the New York Times. I don't even know where to begin there because, okay, why are you drafting.

[Interviewer]

A statement for the New York Times?

[Ashley Banfield]

What could it possibly be about? I can't wait till we get to read it. But the prison officials have a different story. They say that this call broke every rule in the book. Inmates are only allowed to talk to approved contacts that are on their call list. Right. That's standard. But if you add multiple people to a call, that's something that's called patching. That is strictly forbidden. And documents show that during the call, Diddy first spoke to an unnamed woman about weekend visitation. And he told her to bring, quote, 200 singles, end quote. There's no word on why, but I think there's going to be a pretty big story about that soon enough. I myself again, can't wait for the.

[Interviewer]

New York Times statement.

[Ashley Banfield]

And I cannot wait to find out what happens with 200 singles in prison, because as I understand it, you're not even allowed to have one single in prison. But okay. Then halfway through the call, Diddy told the woman to add someone else to the call, someone he described as, quote, the digital person, supposedly to talk about blogs. So the woman added an unknown male to the line. And that is when the Bureau of Prisons stepped in. Officials say this was an unauthorized third party call, and they recommended that Diddy lose 90 days of phone privileges and 90 days of commissary access. That ruling was filed on November 4, which incidentally, was also Diddy's 56th birthday, which also coincides with maybe why he could have been drinking toilet wine was his birthday. Diddy's publicist, Judah Engelmeier, told CBS News there was nothing improper about the call, saying, quote, it was a procedural call initiated by one of his attorneys and was protected under attorney client privilege, end quote. That publicist also praised Diddy's progress behind bars, saying he's taken his rehabilitation seriously from the start. Quote, he's focused on growth and committed to positive change. I'M going to stop there for just a minute because the whole idea of making prison calls like those three party calls, it's well known, right? In prison, it's highly doubtful, even after being there four days, that it's an accident. You kind of read the ropes. Although Diddy, according to cbs, says he didn't get the playbook, he didn't get the manual, but all the guys talk, right? And he's already been in the federal system for a long time, right? Over a year and a half. So you think he's going to know by now, Right? He's been living by the federal rules for a long time. But here's what also is well known among the prisoners. The number of calls that go out by each prisoner, like every day, the length of time they're spent on these calls. Prisoners know that the jail doesn't have enough staff to listen to every single call. They know that they're monitored, right? They know that they're recorded and that they could listen in at any time. But they also know that they just don't have enough staff, with the listening hours available, to listen to every single inmate's call for the duration of the call. So most inmates think it's a pretty good risk to take as long as you don't do it right away at the beginning of the call. You kick in, say, halfway through the call, you have a better shot of no one ever finding out about it. Right? So that's kind of how it works on the inside. When you think about, why would they do that? We all know that they're monitored. That's just so stupid. Not necessarily. They're monitored. If they can monitor it. If you find out about something, you can go and get the file and you can listen to it. But to listen to every single word that is said on every single phone line by every single prisoner who makes a call, every. It's impossible. So good risk, according to the prisoners. And here's my guess. If Didi did it, he probably thought it was a good risk to take halfway through the call. Hey, patch in. You know, the digital guy. So all this stuff about the rehab, though, it isn't just spin. Diddy has actually been assigned to what's called the Residential Drug Abuse Program, or rdap, as they call it. It's the Bureau of Prisons most intensive drug treatment track. Again, it's all kind of surprising, given the toilet wine story that I've been talking about, and I'm going to keep talking about in a second, but okay, it is not easy to get into this rehabilitation program. And most inmates don't actually start their sentences there. The program can actually shave up to a year off of your sentence if it's completed successfully. So there's huge incentive to complete it successfully. And maybe don't dabble in the toilet wine. So, again, if Diddy dabbled in the toilet wine, what the F, pal, right? I mean, a year off your sentence is a lot. When it's only two years, really, that's four years, but with good time, you know. Anyway, Diddy's lawyers had written to Judge Aaron Subramanian, who was the judge in his trial, and they asked for this placement in the program to address what they called drug abuse issues and maximize family visitation and rehabilitative efforts. And so far, the prison officially says that Diddy's been an active participant. But again, what about the toilet wine story? Are we, like, way lagged on the official prison word about Diddy? Are we going to hear, like, many weeks after the fact, like, oh, he was doing well until toilet one.

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[Ashley Banfield]

Program isn't the only great assignment that Diddy has apparently landed behind bars. He's also now working as an assistant in the prison chapel. And this is a gig that carries serious status inside Fort Dix. First of all, he gets to work in a small private office, among others. And it's got air conditioning, y'. All. And the best perk. Sometimes there's lots of food that's ordered in and left over from religious services, so they get to eat it. A corrections officer who spent 20 years in the federal system told CBS that the chapel is one of the few places that inmates are allowed to move around freely. And here's what's key. If you're an assistant in the chapel, you can quietly help out other inmates. How, you ask? I'm glad you asked. Because chaplains allow their assistants, AKA Sean Diddy Combs, to prepare what is known as the call out lists. And call out lists are the rosters that determine who's allowed to leave their cell for appointments or programs. Right. So if you prepare the list, you're the guy that everybody wants to please. So, yeah, it is considered a serious power position behind bars. And now comes word of this other story that's bubbling, literally. Get back to that toilet wine story. Because to start with, toilet wine is actually a total misnomer. The toilet is mostly the hiding place, right? Not the cauldron where you brew the stuff. Because that's really what comes to mind when I hear about it.

[Interviewer]

And then I'm like, well, where do you do your duties?

[Ashley Banfield]

And how do you clean that thing? But that's not what it is. It's the hiding place. And then also it's look, misnomer. It's not wine. It's really not wine. It's just fermented juice. And Sean Combs is not the first prison inmate to get busted with it, if the story is true. But Diddy may be the first prison inmate to be busted with toilet wine who once owned a vodka brand worth upwards of a billion dollars. That would be Chirac, right? You know, that Chirac, he was in so many of the ads, it is distilled five times from the finest French grapes or label claims, and the company sold earlier this year for like, a fraction of the price, as it was when it was in its heyday and Diddy was like, in the commercials. Toilet wine, on the other hand, is basically a fermented cocktail of Fanta sugar and apples. Different recipe, same result. And although there are plenty of variations, prison to prison, cell to cell, every one of them is alcoholic, which is exactly the point and exactly why it's banned in prison. TMZ is now reporting that Diddy was caught with the stuff on the week of his birthday, which was November 4th. And they report that prison officials were about to move him to a new housing unit, but apparently changed their minds. I don't have the rest of that story. Not sure why. Why were they going to move him? Why did they decide not to? Okay, still, that raises a big question. What happened to Diddy's sobriety? You know, that he made such a public point of during his sentencing? And could this hurt his sentence reduction prospects under the residential drug abuse program? Here's my conversation with inmate, former inmate Jean Borrello.

[Interviewer]

Jean, I have been dying to talk to you about this. Every time I hear toilet wine, I keep thinking, do you stir it in the toilet? And if so, how is it clean? And how on earth do you, you know, make a duty?

[Ashley Banfield]

But I. I have come to learn.

[Interviewer]

No. So for our audience, can you explain what it is and how it's made.

[Jean Borrello]

Yeah. So it's called hooch, basically, is different ways to make it. You can make it with orange peels, you can make it with sugar. It is all different ways. But what a lot of people don't know and why it is serious in prison, it could blow up. So if you don't know what you're doing and you don't let it breathe, as they say, it could actually be like a bomb. So it actually can blow up and everything will spray, spray everywhere. But it can get you drunk and it's. And it could also land you in the hole. So, I mean, I don't know. As far as them saying he's going to move him out of the unit, I know as a tear, I know it's a very serious ticket. I know he could lose his phone, he could lose commissary, and he could lose visits and also maybe go to the shoot for up to 30 days or maybe more.

[Ashley Banfield]

So, I mean, that's all serious stuff.

[Interviewer]

I keep wondering about the sentence.

[Ashley Banfield]

Do you not think it's possible, especially.

[Interviewer]

Since he campaigned, you know, in his sentencing, that he was getting sober, he'd been working, you know, in a sobriety at the mdc. Now he's at Fort Dixon. If this is true, if the report's true, might they say, well, you know, screw it, you're not getting your 15% off your federal sentence.

[Ashley Banfield]

Right.

[Jean Borrello]

So it don't work like that. But he would. Every ticket in the feds. If it's a certain degree ticket, you will lose some good time. We call it good time in this. In New York State. And federal prison is too different. You could actually lose your good time in New York State or any state prison and get your good time back. The feds, once you lose it, you can't. So if he does lose 20 days, 40 days for this, he cannot get it back or whatever they recommend for him to lose. Because they will recommend days to be lost on this kind of ticket.

[Ashley Banfield]

Okay, let's get back to making it.

[Interviewer]

I know you gave me the ingredients, right. I want you to tell me how you put them together in the burping, which is interesting. But before you do that, how is the toilet involved? Because in my mind, whenever I heard toilet wine, I imagine an inmate stirring, you know, the mooch in the toilet bowl, but that's not it. So explain what actually happens.

[Jean Borrello]

Well, they. They usually get a big garbage bag, like a big clear bag. I've seen it done in a garbage bag. And they'll put it in the Toilet and then let it sit in there, you know, I mean, they won't actually put it in the toilet bowl. You get what I'm saying? With the water. You know what I mean? Right.

[Interviewer]

You're not actually stirring in the back in the tank.

[Ashley Banfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So it's in a bag, and it's hidden in the toilet tank. Not in the toilet bowl.

[Jean Borrello]

Not in the toilet bowl.

[Wix Advertiser 2]

And that's just.

[Jean Borrello]

It takes a while.

[Interviewer]

Good distinction.

[Jean Borrello]

It takes a while to make. It's not just an overnight thing. This takes days to make it. And remember, it smells really bad, so you have to have a good hiding spot. It's very strong.

[Wix Advertiser 2]

Oh, it does smell.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so that's the other thing. So the toilet tank is what you're hiding it from the view of the guards? Not necessarily. The temperature of the toilet tank is, you know, optimal for the fermentation of the lovely hooch, you know?

[Wix Advertiser 2]

Right.

[Ashley Banfield]

But so.

[Interviewer]

So they put it in the toilet tank, and then how does the toilet tank fill up with water to flush? You pull it out, do your business, and flush and then put it back in.

[Jean Borrello]

Yes, yes. So like I said, these people that usually do make it are very good at it, and they actually charge to make it. So in prison, every. In federal prison, everything's a business. So he probably paid somebody to actually hold that in their cell and make it for his birthday. I guess it was his birthday that came up. And they will make. Make this alcohol beverage for you. But what's confusing to me is that when you're in the feds, usually there's a crooked CEO that'll just bring you in an actual bottle of vodka. So I. Why they even made it.

[Ashley Banfield]

Serious?

[Jean Borrello]

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

[Interviewer]

Dang. Okay, so the whole thing about. The whole thing you just said about them selling the. The toilet wine, I. I feel like Diddy wouldn't have to buy it. There'd be a lot of people who'd want to be friends with Diddy, and they'd be handing it over. Really?

[Jean Borrello]

No. They know how much money he has. Everybody's so happy that he's in the jail right now because they see currency. So all they're doing right now is going up to his cell and trying to sell him everything that they have possible, actually trying to get on salary with him to make his bed, clean his cell, go extra shopping for him, extra phone calls, cell phones, anything they can. They're all going to his cell, trying to sell something to him because they know he has money. They do it to everybody with money in Those jails.

[Interviewer]

Wow, that's something.

[Ashley Banfield]

Let me quickly read the statement that.

[Interviewer]

Diddy's team put out when TMZ broke this news. Cuz they really stopped short of denying.

[Ashley Banfield]

It, but this is what they said.

[Interviewer]

Mr. Combs is in his first week at FCI Fort Dix and is focused on adjusting, working on himself and doing better. Each any high profile individual in a new environment. There will be many rumors and exaggerated stories throughout his time there, most of them untrue. We ask that people give him the benefit of the doubt, the privacy to focus on his personal growth with grace and purpose. Here's the question. Do most people screw up in just the first few weeks? Cause I think he's only been there.

[Ashley Banfield]

Less than two weeks.

[Jean Borrello]

Like I said, everyone does, you know, prison, you know, when you get with your people. So in the feds, he's hanging out with all the New York guys. The feds are very segregated, so you're gonna go with your own. So in federal system, he's with the New York car. They call it cars. So he's with his car, which is the New York car, and he's with all his New York guys. And whatever's going on in that car, he's a part of it and hanging out with everybody. So if they're all drinking hooch, they're all doing it. You know, that's just what goes on, you know, I mean, he's going to be with his guys and, you know, you never know what's going to be going on with them. And people tend to get in trouble a lot in these prisons. Very easy.

[Ashley Banfield]

So here's where things stand. Sean Diddy Combs, the billionaire mogul who once built an empire on Shirak Vodka, is now working in a prison chapel, enrolled in rehab, and accused of drinking prison hooch made in a toilet. Man, oh man. From champagne rooms to cell blocks, the fall does not get much steeper than that. I'm Ashley Banfield. Thanks so much for listening and watching. And remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious, y'. All.