Call for Special Grand Jury to Probe Fulton Jail Problems

“Our citizens deserve a functioning government,” said jury foreman Gillen Young. “So we’re challenging our officials to come together, get these things fixed. Use some common sense. That’s all we’re asking.”

Young and his fellow jurors want the special grand jury to look into the hiring process and personnel policies at the jail. The chief jailer says he has 100 open positions, and Fulton Commission Chairman John Eaves says those positions are fully funded. The hope is that the special grand jury could find and make recommendations to fix the disconnect.

The grand jury also wants Fulton commissioners to move forward with talks about buying or leasing the Atlanta City Jail to ease overcrowding. Chairman Eaves said, in a statement responding to the recommendation, that he has asked for a new conversation with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed about the city jail.

The grand jury is also asking for the chief jailer to provide a monthly report on any inmates who have been housed at the jail more 100 days, and it wants a review on procedures for handling inmates with mental illness.

District Attorney Paul Howard says he will move quickly to petition the Fulton Chief Superior Court Judge to grant the forming of the special grand jury. Howard says this is the first time in his memory that a grand jury has requested the appointment of a special grand jury, saying “I think what they have done is to really ask the same questions that a lot of people in Fulton County have been asking for a very long time.”

If the judges agree to impanel the special grand jury, those questions would have subpoena and indictment power behind them.