Federal Judge Rules Fulton Sheriff Did Not Comply With Court Settlement

A federal magistrate judge has ruled that Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat failed to comply with the requirements of a 2022 settlement agreement with some women incarcerated under his jurisdiction. Now both sides are waiting for an appeals court to determine what happens next.

The agreement resulted from a 2019 class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of women who at the time were housed at the South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail in Union City; they were since moved to the Atlanta City Detention Center. It requires that incarcerated women with serious mental illness — meaning they cannot function within the jail’s general population — would be allowed a minimum of four hours of out-of-cell time at least five days per week. 

It also requires Labat’s office to document what time each inmate is offered the out-of-cell time, and what time the inmate returns to their cell. If an inmate is denied out-of-cell time or declines out-of-cell time, the reason must also be documented.

All of this information was to be reported biweekly to the two legal advocacy firms who filed the class-action lawsuit, the Georgia Advocacy Office and the Southern Center for Human Rights. But in a Jan. 2 decision, U.S. Magistrate Judge Regina D. Cannon rejected Labat’s defense for being out of compliance.

“Defendant essentially contends that it is not possible for him to comply with the settlement agreement. … However, as discussed above, Defendant has not shown that he has made such an effort at complying that his incomplete compliance can be excused,” Cannon wrote in the 19-page ruling.

Labat’s office told Capital B Atlanta that it was aware of the ruling and is appealing. 

“Sheriff Labat continues to be committed to the humane treatment of detainees in the care and custody of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office,” a Labat spokesperson said in a statement.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will now decide whether to overturn or uphold the magistrate judge’s decision, which would dictate how the case is handled going forward.

“If the magistrate judge determines on two occasions that they have failed to comply with the settlement agreement, that they are in material breach, then the settlement agreement then becomes a consent order,” said Devon Orland, litigation director at GAO.

If Cannon’s decision is upheld, it would be the sheriff’s first violation or material breach. Should a second occur and the agreement become a consent order, the original agreement could be extended for another two years and the magistrate judge would determine if there is an ongoing constitutional violation.

The potential for any future litigation beyond a consent order, Orland said, hinges on the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The 1996 law, among other things, requires a potential plaintiff to exhaust all administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit.

Cannon’s ruling comes at a difficult time for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, which has received negative attention in the past year because of jail conditions and the 10 people who died in custody in 2023. 

Those deaths included Noni Battiste-Kosoko, a 19-year-old woman found dead in her ACDC cell on July 11, 2023. Battiste-Kosoko’s mother told The Guardian that her daughter had a history of mental illness and had been diagnosed with psychosis as a child.

Two days after Battiste-Kosoko died, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced an investigation into the living conditions at the Fulton County Jail and whether people with psychiatric disabilities were discriminated against by the jail.