For all the tens of millions of dollars that taxpayers pour into the Fulton County jail every year, the lockup can't perform the basic function of keeping inmates locked up in cells.
The 23-year-old jail has such shoddy door locks that inmates can jam them with soap, toilet paper, shards of cloth or other trash and leave their cells at will. Motor-operated sliding doors on the maximum security levels can be jimmied open with pieces of cardboard.
It's been a problem for well over a decade. County officials and three different sheriffs' administrations were warned repeatedly that inmates could get past the locks, documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show. Yet they have repeatedly put off spending money to fix it, and on Wednesday they delayed fixing the problem again.
But there is no danger to the general public, the commissioner noted. Inmates were only able to get out of the cells and at each other.
"It's indefensible," said attorney Emmet Bondurant, who chaired a blue ribbon commission that studied the county's criminal justice system in 2006. "What argument could you make for that? ‘We had other priorities?' Or, ‘I was running for re-election and I didn't want to raise the [tax] rate?'"
Despite federal court pressure to fix the problem, commissioners rejected 3-1 a proposal to spend $6.5 million to replace more than 1,300 substandard locks.
It was too much to ask of taxpayers and there was no guarantees that new locks would truly alleviate the problem.
"I really think this lock thing is blown out of proportion," Commissioner Tom Lowe said.
Something must be done, however, for the county to finally shake off federal jail oversight. Updating locks is one of the last items on a checklist to come into compliance with a 2006 consent order settling a federal lawsuit over dangerous, dirty and crowded jail conditions.
The biggest danger posed by defective locks is for the inmates. For instance, a year ago gang members left their cells to beat and stab a convicted murderer.
Non-violent inmates, charged with low-level crimes like drug possession or drunken driving, could be in the same areas with armed robbers, gang members and accused murderers with the skill and the determination to unlock cell doors to get at others.
"In the county's eyes, it's OK when they're attacking each other," said Riley Taylor, a former chief jailer who also once served as an auditor in the case for U.S. District Judge Marvin Marvin Shoob, who is enforcing the conditions of the federal lawsuit.
Warnings about the locks have come repeatedly over the years.
"It's always been about safety of the officers and of the inmates," said Calvin Lightfoot, who is Shoob's jail expert. "It's never been about contraband."
In 2010, manufacturer Southern Folger notified the county that the locks had been discontinued and there would be no replacement parts.
Commissioner Bill Edwards said he doesn't see Shoob letting up until the county builds a new jail, which is estimated to cost $150 million to $250 million. He told sheriff's officials Wednesday that $6 million might be better spent on extra deputies to keep inmates from getting their hands on items they can use to jam locks.
"It's always something," Edwards told the AJC, "no matter how hard we work, no matter how much we comply. As one commissioner, I'm sick of it."
The Sheriff's Office budget this year is $97.1 million with $68.1 million of that for the jail.
The county has spent so much complying with the order over the years that, by now, it could almost have built a new jail, or at least a new wing. Cobb County spent $110 million in sales tax funds on an 1,152-bed expansion to its jail that opened in 2010. The federal lawsuit now caps the Fulton jail population at 2,500. There have been times there were far more inmates in the jail -- more than 3,000.
"They keep putting money in that jail. In my opinion, it’s a waste or resources," said Charles Felton who was chief jailer under two sheriffs. "They need to look at building a new jail."
Since 2006, Fulton has spent more than $50 million paying other jurisdictions to house inmates in order to stay below the cap. The county borrowed $54.7 million for required plumbing, heating, air conditioning and elevator system upgrades. Interest on the loan will put the cost of the jail renovation at $86 million.
There are more expenses than just for the renovation to electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems.
The sheriff's office has spent nearly $574,000 on stronger hinges because the doors are too heavy; the doors still sag and the locks aren't properly aligned.
Then for the sliding doors, the county spent another $72,500 replacing a cable-driven emergency lock system with a hydraulic system. But that project only covered one of the four housing units with those kinds of doors, Adger said.
The county could extend that $54.7 million loan to pay for new locks.
Questions are being raised about why that wasn't taken care of before.
"I don't remember it being on the radar screen, because we would have addressed it," former County Manager Tom Andrews said. "We addressed everything else."
Discussion of what problems to fix first took place in 2003 and 2004, as the county negotiated on a lawsuit settlement.
At one time, the locks were part of the renovation but then"they said they were going to do that as a separate project," Taylor said. "We knew exactly what we were facing."
While the other upgrades were underway, the county put about $46,500 into a temporary fix for the locks -- which didn't work. Steel plates were welded onto door frames to cover the locks, but inmates found their way around those too, Chief Jailer Mark Adger said.
All it takes is a piece of string or cloth with a knot in it.
Taylor, who was chief jailer at the time, didn't expect the plates to work but they would make it harder to bypass the locks by inmates who wanted to get to other inmates to hurt them.
“They’re not going to spend the money on the jail,” Taylor said. “It’s either build a $200 million facility or outsource [inmates to rented jail space] a little at a time."
Commission Chairman John Eaves, who was out of town Wednesday, said earlier in the week he supports the plan to pay for new locks, which will go back before the board next month.
Money spent on compliance hasn't been a waste, Eaves said, because the order has forced the county to speed up its court systems and steer more inmates to alternative programs, such as drug and DUI courts.
"In the long run, the cost to the taxpayers will be reduced, and public safety will be enhanced," he said. "We're on the brink, so we need to go ahead and push this thing through."
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