The Trump administration’s mass deportation plan continues to cause anxiety throughout Atlanta’s Black immigrant community — even among those who have legal status. “The fear is real,” said Nnamdi Ihenacho, founder of the Atlanta-based nonprofit African Immigrant Collective. “Even people who have their papers are still worried about, ‘can my citizenship be revoked?’ ‘Can my […]
Madeline Thigpen
Madeline Thigpen is Capital B Atlanta's criminal justice reporter.
Posted inIncarceration
Seventh Person to Die in Custody at DeKalb County Jail Raises Alarm
A 27-year-old Decatur man is the seventh person to die in custody at DeKalb County Jail this year. Larynz Redd was found unresponsive in his cell on Saturday morning, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office. The jail’s health care provider and DeKalb EMS unsuccessfully performed emergency medical services on-site. With seven deaths, the DeKalb […]
Posted inCourts
Fani Willis Responds to Being Removed From Trump RICO Case
When Capital B Atlanta spoke with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in August, she strongly objected to the criticism that her case against President Donald Trump for alleged election interference was expensive and unsuccessful. “That’s incorrect, that they didn’t yield the results. The case against President Trump is ongoing, and it’s in the [Georgia] […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
A Rare Look Inside Fulton County’s Crumbling Jail with Sheriff Labat
As you step off the elevators in Fulton County’s main jail, you hear the building’s quiet hum and maybe a few voices echoing in the distance. Incarcerated people, wearing gray jumpsuits labeled FCSO and bright orange plastic slippers, who are in the halls cleaning or being escorted to another part of the facility, are made […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
She Nearly Died in a Domestic Violence Attack. Illinois Denied Her Victim Compensation.
Yolanda Carter was once an avid line dancer known for her smooth two-step. More than nine years ago, a domestic violence attack not only forced her to walk away from her beloved dance group, but it changed her life forever. It was around midnight on March 22, 2016, when Carter went to bed next to […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
ICE Raid in Georgia Results in 475 Arrests in Support of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown
Hundreds of workers were arrested by masked agents Thursday at a massive Hyundai electric vehicle manufacturing plant in southeastern Georgia about 40 minutes west of Savannah. “This in fact was the largest single site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations,” Steve Schrank, special-agent-in-charge of HSI for Georgia and Alabama told the media […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Family of Atlanta Deacon Killed by Police Releases Film to Challenge APD’s Account
In the hours after he was killed by Atlanta police officer Kiran Kimbrough, the police department released a statement describing Deacon Johnny Hollman as the aggressor in the incident that would lead to his death. Now, Hollman’s family is determined to reclaim the narrative which they believe the city has purposefully painted to portray him […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Sheriff Pushes Back on Finding Tied to Care of Incarcerated Women With Mental Illness
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat is still failing to document the proper treatment of women with serious mental illnesses incarcerated in Fulton County, as is required by a 2022 settlement. The agreement was the result of a class-action lawsuit filed in 2019 by the Georgia Advocacy Office, the Southern Center for Human Rights and Caplan […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Atlanta Protesters Rally Against Kemp’s National Guard Order Supporting ICE
Dozens of Atlantans protested outside the state capitol Thursday evening in response to Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to mobilize the state’s National Guard in support of President Donald Trump’s federal immigration crackdown. According to the governor’s order, shared with Capital B Atlanta via email earlier this week, approximately 75 Georgia National Guard soldiers and airmen […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Communities Over Cages: Coalition Calls on Atlanta to End Jail Lease
As the final year of Fulton County’s four-year lease for use of the Atlanta City Detention Center approaches, a group of local and national criminal justice advocacy groups is calling on the Atlanta City Council to support a resolution to begin planning how the county will remove its 435 inmates from the facility. The coalition […]