Atlanta Mayor Dickens agrees to sell city detention center to Fulton County

After a back-and-forth letter writing campaign that spanned several weeks, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has agreed to sell the Atlanta City Detention Center to Fulton County for $68 million.

On Tuesday, Dickens accepted the commission’s latest offer, even though it doesn’t include funding for a future hospital on Atlanta’s Southside like he initially wanted.

Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts previously said the county was open to purchasing the detention center for $68 million, but commissioners seemed unwilling to commit $200 million over the next decade for the proposed hospital.

Pitts said Tuesday the agreement was “strictly a real estate deal,” and called it a win for both the city and county.

“We needed the facility, they have a facility, and we reached an agreement on the price,” Pitts said in a phone interview. “I can’t think of a more ideal situation for Fulton County and for the city of Atlanta.”

“I can’t think of a more ideal situation for Fulton County and for the city of Atlanta,” Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

In his counteroffer last week, Pitts said the county could reserve a set number of beds for detainees from the city of Atlanta, and the city could continue housing inmates there if it pays for housing, food, staffing, medical care and other associated jailing costs.

Tuesday’s deal outraged members of several local organizations who have long pushed for the closure of the detention facility in favor of a community center. Advocates argued at the City Council meeting that selling the detention center would only increase the number of people held behind bars and expand Atlanta’s “incarceration footprint.”

Local organizations also accused the mayor of “name-dropping” their groups in a letter to commissioners without first consulting them about working together to keep detainees safe.

For nearly four years, the city has leased beds to the county as Fulton’s main Rice Street jail remains under the federal consent decree for its “deplorable” conditions. The legal agreement requires the county to make improvements that will bring the jail up to standards. The county can now use the detention facility to house inmates while the renovation work is done in phases.

That lease deal between the county and city was set to expire in December.

“We are not in the jailing business,” Dickens said in September 2022, while the details of that agreement were being ironed out. “I don’t want to be in the jailing business for long.”

Devin Barrington-Ward, a member of the local Communities Over Cages coalition, said the pending sale represents “a major departure” from Dickens’ previous position.

He noted that as a council member, Dickens introduced a proposal to close and repurpose the detention center.

“I want to be very clear with the mayor: You may want your legacy to be affordable housing, transportation, the environment,” Barrington-Ward said during public comment, “but your legacy is ‘Cop City,’ it is mass incarceration, and it is police surveillance.”

“Cop City” refers to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center and is a term often used by the training center’s opponents.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said the agreement would “promote the safe, humane and appropriate treatment of detainees while making responsible use of existing public resources.” (Paras Griffin/Getty Images 2022)

In a statement, Dickens called the pending sale a win for everyone involved.

He said the agreement would “promote the safe, humane and appropriate treatment of detainees while making responsible use of existing public resources.”

“This is an example of what can be accomplished when local governments work together toward solutions that are fiscally responsible, operationally sound and centered on people,” Dickens said.