An Atlanta family is seeking answers after a brutal attack inside the Fulton County Jail left a 20-year-old woman on life support at Grady Hospital. Tyriana Ledbetter had been incarcerated in Fulton County since late May on multiple charges including armed robbery and aggravated assault. According to a statement from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, […]
Madeline Thigpen
Madeline Thigpen is Capital B Atlanta's criminal justice reporter.
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy, Public Safety
What Does Public Safety Look Like to You? A City Council Candidate Asks Atlantans.
Creating a climate where people feel safe in their communities can be one of the most difficult tasks an elected official takes on. Public safety is an umbrella term for a network of community, law enforcement and public health officials working together to create that sense of security. This election cycle, both candidates running for […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Incarceration
How The Bail Project Is Working to Get Low-Income People Out of Jail
In Fulton County, bail fund organizers are on the front lines in the fight to prevent the further expansion of pretrial detention in the face of federal and state intervention. The Bail Project, a national organization that currently works in 11 jurisdictions across the country, posts bail for 20 to 40 people in Fulton County […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
How To Find Out If Your Driver’s License Has Been Suspended in Atlanta
Hundreds of people in Atlanta and Fulton County are arrested for driving while their license is suspended or revoked every year. Despite a first offense being considered a misdemeanor, a conviction can lead to hundreds of dollars in fines and between two days and 12 months in jail. “As always and you see this historically, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Atlanta Lawyers Work to Get Unlawfully Deported Black Immigrants Returned to the U.S.
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 […]
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 […]