ATLANTA — A former candidate for mayor is calling on the city of Atlanta to let Fulton County use its empty jail space Downtown. The city is looking at ways to repurpose the Downtown city jail into something else.
The call came overnight from former city councilwoman Mary Norwood, who lost narrowly in her 2017 race for mayor.
Her tweet said “Fulton County is releasing inmates because of overcrowding. Why isn’t the (city) of Atlanta arranging for them to use our city jail? This makes no sense.”
"We need to say that there’s a reason for Fulton County to work with Atlanta and use some of that space," Norwood told 11Alive News.
This has come up before, according to an online history of the city jail.
In 1995, the city opened the Downtown jail. In 2003, Mayor Shirley Franklin ordered Atlanta Police start sending more inmates to the Fulton county jail, reducing the city jail’s population.That led to a 2004 federal lawsuit against Fulton County, alleging inhumane overcrowding at the Fulton jail. Meantime, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. marshals leased beds in the city facility for federal inmates as well.
In 2010, Mayor Kasim Reed offered to sell the city jail to Fulton County for $40 million. But then in 2011, the city more than doubled the asking price to $85 million – saying it better matched the possible replacement value.
The county rejected the deal—and the city jail’s under-use continued, as did much of the overcrowding at the Fulton jail.
The county jail’s design capacity is 2591 inmates.
Overnight Thursday, there were 2,647 inmates in the jail, according to spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan. And 274 of them slept on mattresses on the floor.
"If there's any way to relieve the pressure that's on the Fulton County jail at this point, we should do it," said Valerie Sellers of the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods. "And if it means utilizing the space that we have at the Atlanta city detention center, we should be utilizing that space."
A city of Atlanta spokesman declined comment.
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