Family of man who died in Fulton jail call for its closure
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office says it has taken several steps to address concerns at its jail following reports of a 35-year-old Black man who died under alleged brutal conditions, but his family is still calling for the jail to be torn down.
Officials from the sheriff’s office say they’ll ask the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to determine whether any criminal charges are warranted in the case of Lashawn Thompson.
The family’s attorney, Michael Harper, says Thompson was covered in bed bugs when he was found dead in the psychiatric wing of the Fulton County Jail in September last year. He had previously been arrested for a misdemeanor but not yet charged.
The sheriff’s office says that while an internal investigation is ongoing it has added staff members to the mental health unit and transferred more than 600 detainees to other counties to help relieve overcrowding, costing about 40 thousand dollars a day.
WABE criminal justice reporter Chamian Cruz spoke with WABE’s “All Things Considered” about what the family has said now that the jail has released its report.
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