Georgia Republicans advance bill to make Atlanta let the Fulton County sheriff use its jail
Vehicles are parked outside the Fulton County Jail, April 11, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Kate Brumback, File)
ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans in a Georgia Senate committee advanced a bill Wednesday that would force the city of Atlanta to allow the Fulton County sheriff to use the city jail for no more than the cost of maintaining it.
Supporters of the proposal said it would help relieve pressure on the county jail, which was the subject of a federal civil rights investigation that found detainees were living in unsanitary and dangerous conditions in violation of their constitutional rights. Fulton County and Sheriff Pat Labat last month entered a court-enforceable agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to improve the conditions in county lockups.
Thirty-two people have died in Fulton County custody since 2021, according to the sheriff’s office. That includes two deaths in the city jail, where the county already uses about 350 beds under an agreement with the city that allows them up to 700 berths.
Fulton County commissioners have long wanted to acquire Atlanta’s city-owned jail, a controversial idea they say could ease overcrowding and allow the separation of detainees based on how dangerous they’re considered. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has said, however, that he won’t transfer the Atlanta City Detention Center.
“I cannot legislatively force the sale of the jail,” said Sen. John Albers, the Roswell Republican who sponsored the bill called SB 7. But, he said, SB 7 forces “that jail to be leased to the county at a very reasonable rate.”
The bill passed 5-2, without support from Democrats. Critics say the state shouldn’t intervene in such a local matter. They warned that the quest for more space ignores mismanagement and malpractice by the county, the sheriff’s office and jail staff, setting the stage for the issues to continue. Criminal justice advocates say police should detain fewer people and instead divert more cases to programs with mental health and economic resources.
“Reading the Department of Justice report, what feels like a common theme is a high level of apathy and indifference that is creating a culture that fosters violence, that would neglect people to death, and an outraging lack of concern for the health and well-being of anybody in that facility,” said Terrica Redfield Ganzy, executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights.
County Manager Dick Anderson called the jail an “underutilized asset” at a Monday hearing on the bill that he’d like to see used for female detainees and people with medical or behavioral health challenges. Labat seemed to endorse that kind of idea at Wednesday’s hearing and added he needs more staffing. But he acknowledged the longstanding cries of advocates that problems in the jail go deeper, and acquiring the jail won’t solve them all.
“We have a cultural change that needs to take place,” the sheriff said.
Albers said he would prefer that Atlanta and Fulton County come to an agreement on their own, but he hasn’t seen those negotiations work out yet.
Sen. Sonya Halpern, an Atlanta Democrat who voted against the bill, thinks there are “enough players that are willing to work together” and “figure out some way for the county to use that facility” more extensively without state interference.
“I think we are making a grave error and setting a terrible precedent in allowing for any city to have their assets seized by counties,” Halpern said.
Albers said the state has intervened in local matters before to help transfer assets after a new city was created. Jim Thornton, director of Governmental Relations for Georgia Municipal Association, pushed back Wednesday. He said decisions about new cities are local and the state shouldn’t get involved in the jail issue.
Labat, who took office in January 2021, has previously lobbied for an expensive new jail. The Fulton County Board of Commissioners, with whom Labat has a tense relationship, has rejected that idea for the time being and instead opted for over $300 million dollars in renovations to avoid a property tax increase. The Justice Department report noted that six weeks after a housing unit repair, damage had already reemerged. Federal investigators said that “until supervision of the Jail improves, it is likely to remain in a state of disrepair that fosters violence.”
The 2022 death of Lashawn Thompson, whose body was found in a bedbug-infested cell in the jail’s psychiatric ward, helped prompt the Justice Department’s investigation. Officers knew about the infestation in his unit but didn’t address it, the report says. It added that the month before he died, he didn’t receive his prescribed medications, including those for psychosis. He lost 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms) during his three months in jail.
Fulton County now houses fewer than 2,500 detainees, with about 1,600 at the main jail and the rest at other facilities, according to sheriff’s office data. Sixteen percent of people have unindicted cases, verses 34% in May 2023.
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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.
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