Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Wednesday that the “personal interests” of Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat and City Councilman Michael Julian Bond are factors in their opposition to the closure of the Atlanta City Detention Center.
Labat and Bond have both argued that Atlanta should allow Fulton to house inmates at the city’s mostly empty jail to alleviate chronic overcrowding at the county’s facility on Rice Street. Bottoms has pushed for the Atlanta jail to be closed and replaced with a community center focused on providing services for residents.
“Move the personal interests out of the way,” Bottoms told reporters at a ribbon-cutting event for an affordable housing complex. “Sheriff Labat, I consider a friend, but he is a jailer. For him to have a job, people have to go to jail so that’s his interest.”
She said Bond “has family that works in the jail. So he has a personal interest.”
“Let’s take a step back from the personal interests and think about what the community needs,” Bottoms said, adding that keeping the city jail open is costing taxpayers millions. She said using the 11-story building to jail people arrested on nonviolent crimes will not solve systemic issues that lead to crime.
Labat and Bond both took issue with the Bottoms’ comments.
Bond told the AJC he was “highly disappointed in my friend Mayor Bottoms for making such an erroneous and false statement.”
The councilman, who sponsored a resolution that would create a joint city-county task force to consider partnering with Fulton, said he has no family members that work at the jail. A relative who once worked there retired almost two years ago, he said.
“If the mayor would get out of her own way and humble herself just a little bit, I think that we can work cooperatively with Fulton County,” Bond said. “I’m saddened by the mayor’s comments but more deeply troubled about how misinformed she apparently is about the situation on the ground.”
“While the mayor is focused on politics in a difficult re-election season, I am focused on solutions,” Labat said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “When she is ready to talk about what’s best for the safety of families who live, work and play in Fulton County and the City of Atlanta she knows where to find me.”
Labat has proposed the county buy the city’s jail, to augment the county’s 2,500-bed facility on Rice Street. Fulton’s jail was under federal oversight for 11 years because of extreme overcrowding and security issues. Though Fulton has spent $1 billion to repair the facility, overcrowding remains a concern.
Credit: ALYSSA.POINTER@AJC.COM
Credit: ALYSSA.POINTER@AJC.COM
Bond’s resolution to create a task force was tabled at the City Council meeting earlier this week. Another measure that would set up the closure of the jail within 15 months has the backing of Bottoms and will be discussed at the council’s public safety committee on Monday.
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