Foreign News

DOJ Says Conditions in Georgia’s Fulton County Jails Violate Inmate Rights

Image Credit: CNN

The Fulton County Jail in Atlanta unconstitutionally subjects inmates to “inhumane, violent and hazardous conditions” that threaten their safety, a US Justice Department official said Thursday, 14th of November, 2024 while announcing the results of a 16-month investigation.

Housing units flooded by broken toilets; infestations of roaches and rodents; exposed wiring; a lack of food, medical and mental health care; and staff resorting to force – including Tasers – without justification are among the problems at the jail, Justice Department officials said in a news conference in Atlanta.

The jail also does not adequately protect inmates from violence by other inmates, “such as stabbings, sexual abuse or even murder,” Kristen Clarke, assistant US attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said while announcing the department’s report on the probe.

During a press conference on Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said, “Our investigation finds longstanding, unconstitutional, unlawful and dangerous conditions that jeopardize the lives and well-being of the people held there.”

The report follows a federal investigation that began in July 2023 to assess conditions in Fulton County jails, focusing on detainees’ living conditions, access to medical and mental health care, allegations of excessive force by staff and factors contributing to inmate-on-inmate violence in the facilities, which serve much of Atlanta.

Federal officials highlighted the September 2022 death of Lashawn Thompson, 35, who was found in a bedbug-infested cell in the psychiatric wing of Fulton County Jail. An independent autopsy requested by Thompson’s family concluded that he died from severe neglect. Photos shared by the family’s attorneys showed Thompson’s body covered in insects and his cell littered with garbage and filth.

The report notes that two other individuals in the same mental health unit died in the weeks after Thompson’s death. Both were killed by their cellmates and were found with their feet bound.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the inhumane, violent and hazardous conditions that people are subjected to inside the Fulton County Jail,” Clarke said on Thursday. “Detention in the Fulton County Jail has amounted to a death sentence for dozens of people who have been murdered or who’ve died as a result of the atrocious conditions inside the facility.”

Violence, including assaults and stabbings with homemade “shanks,” is described as “a feature of life” at the jail, according to the report, which recorded 1,054 assaults and 314 stabbings in 2023. The report also alleges that some officers have permitted or even instigated violence, with many incidents going unreported or improperly documented.


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