A coalition of advocates is calling for city of Atlanta officials to begin planning for an end to the lease with Fulton County that allows Sheriff Patrick Labat to house inmates at the city’s detention center.
The original lease agreement passed in August 2022 and is set to expire next year. It includes the stipulation that the city “strategically plan for the safe and timely transfer of temporary detainees” out of the detention center.
A detailed transition plan is required to be shared with council members on the public safety committee prior to the end date of the lease. But a resolution calling for the “staged withdrawal” of inmates has sat in committee with no movement for months.
On Monday, criminal justice advocates say they want the paper to be called up and voted on so that the mayor and council can make good on promises of a new purpose for the facility.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
“The demand of this coalition to the City Council is simple: we demand that they keep their word,” Devin Franklin, with the Southern Center for Human Rights, said during a news conference outside of the city detention facility on Tuesday. “We believe that Mayor Andre Dickens promised efforts to move forward with a vision for reimagining the facility.
“And we are asking that he keep his word.”
Upon taking office, Dickens stated he did not want to lease the 700 beds in the facility to Fulton County any longer than the four-year term and supported the idea of transforming the building into a community center.
“We are not in the jailing business, I do not want to be in the jailing business for long,” he said at the time. “That is my personal constitution.”
Since, he has struck down efforts by Fulton officials to purchase the facility.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the mayor said that the city entered into the agreement with Fulton County to “help address the humanitarian crisis at Fulton County correctional facilities.”
“We will honor the terms of the agreement,” the mayor’s office said. “The best contribution the City can make to reducing the long-term overcrowding in the County jail is to accelerate efforts to create economic opportunity for all Atlanta residents regardless of their zip code.”
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Fulton officials cited the overcrowding at the Fulton County Jail on Rice Street as reason to use Atlanta’s detention center beds. But the county jail is known for its harsh conditions.
A 2024 Department of Justice investigation found the county and its sheriff had violated the civil rights of inmates by allowing “abhorrent, unconstitutional” conditions.
The probe was launched shortly after the death of Lashawn Thompson, who, according to the autopsy, died because of severe neglect. Photos showed him covered in insects in a cell filled with garbage.
The resolution, introduced by Council member Antonio Lewis, says none of the violations cited by the DOJ “are cured” by the county’s lease of space in the Atlanta City Detention Center.
In fact, the resolution says, the county’s use of beds in the city facility allows “for the continued export of those harms to Atlanta” and exposes the city to potential liability.
The resolution says more than 15 people have died in the custody of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office since December 2022.
According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation, more than 60 people who were being held in Fulton’s jail died between 2009 and October 2022, the highest total for any jail in Georgia during that time. Ten more inmates died in county custody in 2023.
Credit: Riley Bunch/riley.bunch@ajc.com
Credit: Riley Bunch/riley.bunch@ajc.com
The advocates point to the underutilization of Fulton County’s costly new Center for Diversion & Services as another option to relieve jail overcrowding by connecting people who are homeless or have substance use or mental health issues to treatment and services.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney previously told county commissioners that police officers brought in an average of three people per day to the diversion center from the time it opened in January through May 31.
Those numbers have since gone up. New data from Grady Memorial Hospital shows that in June, 174 people were diverted to the center — a 36% increase from the previous month and the highest number since it opened.
But diversions are still short of the center’s potential, said Dr. Mark Spencer, an internal medicine physician in Atlanta and executive director of Stop Criminalization Of Our Patients.
“It is a failure of city and police to embrace diversion,” Spencer said. “We have abdicated our responsibility to care for those who need it most.”
— Staff reporter Reed Williams contributed to this report.
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