Fulton County on Wednesday approved additional funding to pay overtime for jailers who work for the Sheriff’s Office — and to support efforts to hire and retain them — in hopes of addressing staffing shortages in the county’s notorious jail.
Commissioner Bob Ellis, vice chair of the Board of Commissioners and sponsor of the legislation, said it is designed, in part, to nudge Sheriff Patrick Labat to increase the percentage of his employees who work in detention full time.
Two commissioners, Dana Barrett and Marvin Arrington, supported the extra $1.8 million per quarter that will go toward overtime pay for detention employees, but objected to what Barrett called “unnecessary commentary” in the resolution that is critical of Labat.
“I would love if we could just do the numbers and do the budget without all of the finger pointing,” Arrington said. “We‘re setting ourselves up to point the finger at someone else, but we wind up still having to write the check.”
The measure passed with five votes in favor; Arrington abstained. Board Chairman Robb Pitts was absent.
The resolution brought by Ellis — a frequent critic of Labat‘s spending and management — says the Board of Commissioners is concerned that the staffing resources of the sheriff’s office “are not being appropriately focused and concentrated in the provision of detention services, thereby unnecessarily creating safety and security issues.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
On Wednesday night, Labat issued a statement decrying Ellis’ “hyperbole,” calling it unproductive and divisive.
“This resolution reeks of dog whistle politics, is utterly tone-deaf to the realities our team members face every day and intentionally and falsely mischaracterizes the budget and operations of the agency,” the statement reads. “While we share the BOC‘s concern for staffing and safety in the jail, effective solutions require honest assessments, not misleading figures and oversimplified narratives.
“While we acknowledge what appears to be a step in the right direction, the reality is that the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has faced decades of inadequate funding.”
Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Natalie Ammons said in an email that the department has 563 sworn staff, 372 of whom are assigned full time to jail operations. She added that “all sworn employees work jail operations.”
The resolution notes the importance of improving safety at the Fulton County jail, given the scathing Department of Justice investigative report on the facility that found staffing deficiencies. The resolution also says the sheriff’s office has created traffic and motorcycle units, “further diluting staffing for detention services at jail facilities.”
“It‘s one of the biggest issues facing us in the county,” Ellis said of the jail, in an interview Monday. “We‘ve had a DOJ investigation, consent decree, deaths in the jail, violence, etc.”
In response to the resolution’s urging that Labat limit “non-core services,” the sheriff countered: “I firmly reject this false dichotomy. Suggesting that our enforcement efforts conflict with jail responsibilities is both misleading and irresponsible.”
The DOJ launched its civil probe in July 2023, shortly after the death of Lashawn Thompson in the jail’s psychiatric wing. An autopsy found that Thompson‘s death was because of severe neglect, and photos showed him covered in insects in a cell filled with garbage.
The DOJ’s report is replete with examples of how Thompson and others have been harmed by the horrific conditions, rampant violence, indifferent supervision and poor medical care. In particular, guards too often resorted to violence against detainees following small infractions and used solitary confinement in unconstitutional and discriminatory ways, the DOJ said in a scathing 97-page report.
After the report was released, the DOJ and Fulton County reached a legally binding consent decree following the federal investigation that found the conditions in the Rice Street facility “abhorrent” and “unconstitutional.”
Ellis’ legislation provides $1.8 million quarterly for the rest of this calendar year to pay overtime for sheriff’s office employees who perform detention duties. It also offers $1 million as a one-time infusion this year for activities that foster the hiring and retention of full-time detention staff.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
The resolution says the county will work to ensure that overtime payments are solely made to those providing detention services at Fulton jail facilities. In order to use the overtime funding each quarter, the sheriff also must provide the board with a complete roster of its employees that includes specific job titles and whether each employee works full-time in detention facilities.
In this week’s interview, Ellis also questioned why the sheriff’s office is conducting traffic enforcement in the tiny city of Mountain Park when it could be putting those resources into jail security.
Mountain Park Mayor Bill Kolbrener said in December that the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office made 73 stops, wrote 32 tickets and gave 41 warnings over a period of a week or two. The city has a population of 583.
Ellis said: “When we‘ve got the significant issues we‘ve got going on in our jail facilities, why is that even taking place at all?”
“We‘ve got cities where they’ve got concurrent jurisdiction to do those things,” Ellis added.
Ammons, the sheriff’s spokesperson, said that because Mountain Park does not have its own police department, “by state law, all law enforcement within the city is the responsibility of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.”
At Wednesday’s board meeting, Kolbrener told commissioners during public comment that he was “deeply grateful” for the sheriff’s policing in the city.
“Some may ask, ‘Why does the Fulton County sheriff’s department do these things in Mountain Park?’” Kolbrener said. “Why wouldn‘t they? They conduct this type of coverage throughout the entire county.”
“Mountain Park residents pay taxes in Fulton County,” he said, adding that the city’s residents deserve the same secure environment as anywhere else.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Kolbrener said in an interview later that after he took office last year, he asked Labat for help in curbing dangerous driving through the hilly city with narrow streets, including people running stop signs.
He added Wednesday that Roswell police respond to life-threatening calls in Mountain Park and that the Fulton Sheriff’s Office typically responds to those that are not life threatening.
According to Ellis’ resolution, the sheriff’s office spent $7.4 million last year on overtime and $12.2 million the previous year.
“While certain levels of overtime may be necessary to stabilize operations from time to time, increased staffing, and prioritization and dedication of staffing resources to detention services are much more critical,” the resolution says.
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