The U.S. Justice Department announced Friday that it has entered into a court-enforceable agreement with Georgia’s most populous county after finding that violence and filthy conditions in county lockups violated the constitutional rights of people held in jail.
The proposed consent decree must still be approved by a judge but would resolve problems found by Justice Department investigators, the agency said in a news release.
The Justice Department in July 2023 opened a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in Fulton County, citing violence, filthy living quarters and the in-custody death of a man whose body was found covered in insects. That investigation found that jail officials failed to protect detainees from violence, used excessive force and held them in “unconstitutional and illegal conditions.”
Under the proposed agreement with the county and sheriff, officials will develop plans and policies to keep detainees safe from violence, improve supervision and staffing, ensure doors and locks work and require staff to adhere to constitutional standards when using force. They will also take steps to protect detainees who are at risk of suicide and to give detainees adequate medical and mental health care. And they will develop a housekeeping and pest control plan to keep the jail clean and sanitary.
The jail will also stop using isolation for vulnerable people at risk of self harm and will facilitate the provision of adequate special education services to children with disabilities held in the jail, the consent decree says.
The proposed consent decree provides for an independent monitor to assess the jail’s implementation of its requirements and to provide a public report every six months.
The county’s main jail has long been plagued by problems, and county Sheriff Pat Labat, who was reelected in November, has been calling for the construction of an expensive new jail since taking office in January 2021. A lengthy report released in November that details the Justice Department findings said that although Labat and other county leaders were aware of the problems and have spoken publicly spoken about them, “they have failed to take adequate action to address the crisis.”
The day the Justice Department announced its findings, Labat and county Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts said they had already been working to address structural and programming concerns at the jail.
The report detailed a “crisis of violence,” including stabbings, sexual assaults and killings. It also said vulnerable populations, including people who are gay, transgender, young or who have serious mental illness, were particularly at risk from the violence, which causes physical injury and long-lasting trauma.
Jail officers do not receive adequate training and guidance on the use of of force and were found to engage in “a pattern or practice of using excessive force” against people in county custody, the report said.
Fulton County has a main jail and three annexes, and investigators found that the main jail is hazardous and unsanitary, citing flooding from broken toilets and sinks, infestations of cockroaches and rodents, and filthy cells with dangerous exposed wires. There isn’t enough food for detainees and the distribution services are unsanitary, exposing detainees to pest infestation, malnourishment and other harms, the report said.
People held in Fulton County custody receive inadequate medical and mental health care in violation of their constitutional rights, leaving them open to risk of injury, serious illness, pain and suffering, mental health decline and death, investigators found.
When the Justice Department launched its investigation, officials cited the September 2022 death of 35-year-old Lashawn Thompson in a bedbug-infested cell in the main jail’s psychiatric wing, noting that an independent autopsy conducted at his family’s request found that he died of severe neglect. Photos released by attorneys for Thompson’s family showed that his body was covered in insects and that his cell was filthy and full of garbage.
Included in the report were 11 pages of “minimum remedial measures” that jail officials were advised to implement. It ended with a warning that federal authorities could take legal action if concerns are not sufficiently addressed.
A Georgia state Senate committee formed last year to examine jail conditions in Fulton County concluded in August that county officials needed to do more to work together to address problems at the jail. It also called on the city of Atlanta to hand over all of its former jail to the county to house prisoners.
