Story highlights He faces charges that include conspiring to murder rivals and money laundering

Guzman is under "lock-down" 23 hours a day

(CNN) Reputed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman isn't happy with jail conditions in America, his lawyers said Friday.

Guzman wore dark blue prison garb during a status conference in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, where public defenders argued that their client's 23 hours under lock-down each day, with limited visits, kept him from selecting a private attorney.

"The current restrictions are excessive," one attorney, Michelle Gelernt of the Federal Defenders of New York, told reporters after the hearing.

Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel, who has not been permitted to visit him at a federal detention center in Manhattan, attended the hearing but did not comment outside court.

"It has been very difficult," Gelernt said of Coronel. "This is the first time she's seen him since he was brought to the United States."

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