FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The issues facing the Fulton County Jail came to the fore at a county board of commissioners meeting Wednesday. Lawmakers and Sheriff Pat Labat were involved in several fiery exchanges over where the fault lies for the jail's persisting problems and how exactly to find solutions.
The core of the tension around the jail has been its overcrowded population and deteriorating conditions, with a number of deaths recently of detainees at the facility or individuals otherwise in the custody of the sheriff's office.
A plan has been put forth, as one possible way to alleviate the strain at the Rice Street Jail, to potentially move inmates to other facilities in Georgia or even out of state, possibly as many as 800-1,000.
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11Alive's Cody Alcorn reported Tuesday night the idea has already drawn a legal filing in opposition from Maurice Kenner, the circuit public defender of the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. It also drew harsh critiques at Wednesday's meeting from some commissioners.
"We're at a crisis," said Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman. She later added: "I am sad today that in the Civil Rights Cradle, we're talking about shipping individuals to Mississippi? Really?"
Among the facilities under consideration for where Fulton County detainees could be sent are one in Tutwiler, Mississippi - the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility - and the D. Ray James Correctional Institution in Folkston, Georgia.
Sheriff Labat, defending the possible plan - noting also that it hasn't yet been implemented, referencing the legal action at one point saying he was being sued "for something I haven't done yet" - painted the facilities as better positioned to house and provide opportunities for detainees than they're currently getting at the Fulton County Jail.
"It's important that you understand that these facilities, in and of themselves - Mississippi, south Georgia, which we went to see - have the space, have the programmatic opportunities to hopefully change lives," he said. "So the myth we are just shipping people over somewhere... quite simply, if we can't get you to your day in court, what are we doing?"
The sheriff also addressed critiques about visitation for inmates who wind up farther away - saying the jail already currently doesn't do visitation and hasn't since the COVID pandemic, and that the other facilities are equipped for video visits. He said they would also be equipped for remote document signing, a concern brought by lawyers who will not necessarily be able to travel to these facilities to meet with clients.
That issue of getting people their day in court was also highlighted as part of the presentation on the jail. Figures provided by the county showed the jail population being housed without an indictment - which by law is supposed to come within 90 days - was at 35%, up 1% in August from a May baseline of 34%. It's also well above the goal of 10%.
The sheriff noted bringing indictments is not something within his office's control. Other figures showed the average length of stay for a detainee has dropped 10 days between May and August, and Sheriff Labat also partly defended his tenure by pointing to declines in the number of people overall in the jail (from a high of 3,6743 in 2021, he said, to 3,398 now) and the number of people without a cell bed (from close to 600 at one point, he said, to around 270 now).
Commissioner Bob Ellis had more pointed critiques for the sheriff, targeting the cost that would come to the county for essentially leasing the space in other facilities. Commissioners suggested figures during the meeting of $30-40 million, though it was unclear if that aligned with any projections the sheriff's office might have.
"I think collectively everybody's pissed at the level of results, or lack thereof, that we've seen from the judicial process," he said, focusing in on updates about the jail population and progress in reducing it that he said showed "no measurable change in many categories."
Ellis and Labat got into a particularly heated exchange later in the meeting, with the commissioner indicating he felt there was a lack of comprehensive information available from the sheriff's office with which to weigh the proposal.
"This is about the third time the sheriff's office has come down here and not given us information ahead of time - ask us for a boatload of money with limited detail, and create a sort of staged presentation associated with it," he said. "Not acceptable."
The sheriff had at least one inmate speak at the meeting on the conditions at the jail.
"You're not gonna sit here and disrespect me," the sheriff countered.
Ellis further suggested the sheriff had allocated funds in ways that prioritized things other than the jail's issues.
"You chose to do that with those precious funds," he said, referring to new units created by the sheriff's office. "Now we're being asked to further spend money to outsource what should be your core function."
The sheriff responded by referring to private meetings they've had, including over breakfast, where he's explained his priorities.
"Don't be disingenuous... you sitting up there like you didn't have breakfast with me and I didn't explain all of this to you," Labat said. "You can take all the theater and go elsewhere."
It's not clear when an official proposal might be under consideration for a vote by the commissioners.