ATLANTA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced its findings concluding that Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office routinely violate the constitutional and statutory rights of persons incarcerated at the Fulton County Jail and fail to adequately protect incarcerated persons from substantial risk of serious harm.
“In Fulton County, people in custody awaiting formal charges or trials frequently must protect themselves from brutal physical attacks, endure frequent excessive force, manage their wellbeing with inadequate food and unsanitary living conditions, and hope they can find access to a strained medical and mental health care program. This is unacceptable,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “Our Constitution requires humane conditions while incarcerated that, at a minimum, ensure people in custody are safe. The findings regarding the Fulton County Jail reveal grave and diffuse failures to safeguard the men and women housed in its facilities, including a disturbing frequency of deaths among incarcerated people. We expect Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office to share our sense of urgency about the seriousness of the violations described in this report and to work cooperatively with our Office and the Department of Justice to remedy these systemic deficiencies in the Jail.”
“Lashawn Thompson’s horrific death was symptomatic of a pattern of dangerous and dehumanizing conditions in the Fulton County Jail,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department’s report concluded that Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office allowed unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the Jail. As a result, people incarcerated in the Fulton County Jail suffered harms from pest infestation and malnourishment and were put at substantial risk of serious harm from violence by other incarcerated people — including homicides, stabbings and sexual abuse. The unconstitutional and unlawful conditions at the Fulton County Jail have persisted for far too long, and we are committed to working with Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s office to remedy them.”
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the inhumane, violent, and hazardous conditions that people are subjected to inside the Fulton County Jail,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Detention in the Fulton County Jail has amounted to a death sentence for dozens of people who have been murdered or who died as a result of the atrocious conditions inside the facility. It’s not just adults but also children who are subjected to conditions and treatment that violate the constitution and defy federal law. Many people held in jails in our country have not been convicted — they are awaiting hearings, trial dates or are serving short sentences for misdemeanors. At the end of the day, people do not abandon their civil and constitutional rights at the jailhouse door. Jails and prisons across the country must protect people from the kind of gross violations and unconstitutional conditions that we have uncovered here. We hope our findings report sounds an alarm that will prompt Fulton County officials to work with the Justice Department to implement the reforms necessary to ensure constitutional conditions going forward.”
The 97-page report details its findings from a comprehensive investigation of the Jail, which is funded and operated by Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation included the Main Jail, also 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 and in recent years the population has surpassed 3,000 people.
The report concludes that the conditions of confinement at the Jail do not meet basic constitutional standards. The noted deficiencies include the following:
- Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office fail to protect people from the substantial risk of serious harm from violence by other incarcerated people, including homicides, stabbings, and sexual abuse.
- Officers use excessive force against incarcerated people.
- The Jail houses incarcerated people in constitutionally inadequate living conditions that are unsanitary and dangerous.
- The Jail fails to provide adequate medical and mental health services.
- The Jail’s restrictive housing practices expose people, including 17-year-old children, to substantial harm, discriminate against people with mental health disabilities, and fail to provide incarcerated people due process of law.
- The Jail fails to provide special education services to 17-year-old boys and girls who are entitled to those services while they are incarcerated at the facility.
The unlawful and dangerous practices identified in the report are long-standing and have contributed to multiple deaths and other serious harm:
- From 2022 to the present, six incarcerated people have died in violence at the Jail.
- In 2023, more than 300 stabbings occurred in the Jail which involved contraband and makeshift weapons.
- Four deaths from suicide happened at the Jail in the past four years, including as recently as April of this year.
The United States conducted its investigation under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), the Americans with Disabilities Act, and 34 U.S.C. § 12601, which prohibit law enforcement officers from engaging in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of rights protected by the Constitution or federal law. These statutes authorize the Attorney General to file a lawsuit in federal court seeking court-ordered remedies to eliminate a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct. Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office have been provided written notice of the supporting facts for the conclusions in the report and the minimum remedial measures necessary to address the alleged violations.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia joined together with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section to conduct the investigation.
The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tiffany Johnson, Aileen Bell Hughes, and Rebeca Ojeda of the Northern District of Georgia.
For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016. To provide information related to the investigation of the Fulton County Jail, please call 1-888-473-4092 or email the Department of Justice at FultonCountyJail@usdoj.gov.
