Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office routinely violate the constitutional and statutory rights of those incarcerated at the Fulton County Jail and fail to protect incarcerated persons from substantial risk of serious harm.
That was the finding of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
The 97-page report details findings from a comprehensive investigation of the Jail, funded and operated by Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation included the Main Jail, known as “Rice Street,” in Atlanta and three annex facilities: the Marietta Annex in Atlanta, the North Annex in Alpharetta, and the South Annex in Union City.
The Jail currently houses around 2,000 people. In recent years, the population has surpassed 3,000 people.
The jail has been a political hot potato in recent years. In August, a Georgia Senate subcommittee looking into the Fulton County Jail made 17 recommendations for improving the facility’s conditions, including a suggestion that Fulton County Superior Court judges should carry full dockets.
