FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County needs a new jail. The existing one on Rice Street is falling apart — and the people held inside know it.
"It is literally crumbling apart and the inmates, as we have seen, are taking parts of the building, taking metal out of the concrete and using it to assault other inmates," Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington said. "We are charged with holding people in a facility and doing that in a safe and responsible way. There's just no way that we can do that in the current facility."
On Wednesday, he and his fellow commissioners heard a presentation from STV and TreanorHL on what a new jail could look like. The report, commissioned by the legislative body two years ago, recommends a $1.75 billion facility with 4,416 beds and wraparound services.
That's roughly 3.9 times the capacity the existing Rice Street jail was designed for.
"I think the size of it is too big... I think the cost of it is too much," Commissioner Bob Ellis said. "I almost feel like we need some sort of series of public input into it as well as potentially some third parties who could look at this and poke holes in it."
Ellis wanted to know if they should wait until voters approved a sales tax to help fund the project. Other commissioners, like Dana Burrett, said they cannot afford to keep waiting. If the sales tax is not approved in a referendum, she said they will have to raise the millage rate.
"The current building cannot continue," she said. "Regardless of what gets built, something has to get built."
In a statement to 11Alive, Sheriff Pat Labat said he wanted to use the feasibility survey as an opportunity to reiterate his strong support for a replacement jail.
"The current facility is failing, has surpassed its useful lifespan and poses a clear and present danger to our staff, vendors, and detainees," he said. "The facility is in such disrepair that we struggle to provide a healthy and humane environment for those housed at Rice Street."
If commissioners begin funding the project in the first quarter of 2024, construction could finish in 2029. Arrington hopes that the timeline is realistic.
"In my mind, we've got a rush to do that," he said. "I'm sorry that it's taken this long to get to this point."