Overcrowding, staffing issues and safety concerns at two federal jails warranted the pre-sentencing release of a man who pleaded guilty in a scheme to distribute crack cocaine, a Manhattan federal judge ruled last week.

The ruling, from U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein of the Southern District of New York, cited conditions at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center and the Essex County Correctional Facility in New Jersey as "exceptional reasons" not to detain the defendant, Dwight Boyd, ahead of his planned sentencing in April.