Georgia jail inmates placed in ‘dangerous conditions’

The jail in Georgia’s largest county, Fulton County, leaves its inmates vulnerable to “substantial risk of serious harm from violence” and violates their constitutional and statutory rights, according to a new Justice Department report released on Nov. 14.
After a more than a year-long civil rights probe into the Fulton County Jail – which has long been plagued by overcrowding, understaffing and violence — federal investigators concluded detainees are subjected to “dangerous and unsanitary” conditions, like pest infestations and malnourishment. These conditions especially endanger those with mental health conditions, the report found.
“None of these problems are new,” the report said. “And despite widespread awareness of these issues, the unconstitutional and illegal conditions have persisted.”
The Justice Department launched its civil investigation into Fulton County’s jail in July 2023, after at least four Black inmates died in the mental health unit in a matter of weeks, including two who were killed by their cellmates. “Within weeks of opening our investigation, six more Black men had died in the Jail,” the Justice Department revealed. The family of one inmate, Lashawn Johnson, said he died in the jail in 2022, after he was “eaten alive” by insects and bedbugs. About 91 percent of the jail’s total population is Black, according to the report, compared to 45 percent of the overall Fulton County population.
Justice Department investigators conducted multiple site visits, expert consultations and interviews with inmates and staff.
Crumbling infrastructure, failing security, abusive staff and insufficient medical and mental health treatment contributed to the overall unconstitutional conditions described in the report.