Protesters gathered outside Fulton County Jail and Fulton County Courthouse on Thursday demanding change and accountability in response to a 97-page report released by the U.S. Department of Justice last week that exposed inhumane conditions at the facility.
“I want them to know and to hear that this is not normal. Not all jails operate like this,” said Ten Wilkerson, a Chicago-based activist who traveled to Atlanta to protest after learning about the deplorable conditions that have contributed to considerable loss of life.
The determined group marched toward the jail, shouting chants of “Labat must go” in reference to Sheriff Pat Labat, who has come under fire numerous times for the many in-custody deaths in recent years at a facility predominantly made up of Black detainees.
“Detention in the Fulton County Jail has amounted to a death sentence for dozens of people who have been murdered or have died as a result of the atrocious conditions inside the facility,” said Kristen Clarke, head of the DOJ’s civil rights division at a press conference last week announcing the completed investigation.
Since 2022, six Black men have been killed in violent attacks in the jail, primarily via stabbings and strangulation. There were 314 stabbings there last year, 1½ times as many as in New York City jails.
The Justice Department concluded that Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office were violating the constitutional and statutory rights of people incarcerated in the jail. The report ends with 11 pages of remedial measures the county must take to adequately meet the constitutional rights of the incarcerated population.
“Living conditions are hazardous and unsanitary,” said Clarke. “Housing units are flooded from broken toilets. Roaches, rodents, and pests abound. Standing water, exposed wiring, and vermin make living areas unsafe.”
This 16-month long investigation began after a letter from the Southern Center for Human Rights called on the DOJ to look into human rights violations due to LaShawn Thompson being found unresponsive in his cell in September 2022. In the aftermath of his death, a private autopsy requested by his family revealed that his body had been infested with bed bugs while he was still alive and that at the time of his death, he had not received medication for his diagnosed schizophrenia in more than 30 days.
LA Pink, a local activist and business owner who has been an outspoken critic of the sheriff and jail conditions for years, said that while reading the report was overwhelming, she was not shocked or surprised by the DOJ’s findings.
“This was something that I already had been saying,” Pink said. “[The problems] are all the way down to the core, from the deaths to how things are being [handled] by the security officers.”
One of the sticking points in the report is the indifference jail officials show toward the daily violence inmates experience. In a single month last year, Fulton County Jail recorded more stabbings than Miami-Dade County Jail did in the whole year, despite having only two-thirds as many detainees, according to the DOJ.
The report indicates that violence is a feature of life at the jail, causing significant psychological harm to detainees, many of whom already suffer from one or more mental illnesses.
Following the release of the DOJ report, Labat and Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts addressed the findings and suggested that they have already begun making some of the improvements advised by the report.
“We’re committed to continue to work with the Bureau of Justice assistance program as well as the National Institute of Corrections when it comes to going through what some of these remedial efforts [will] look like,” Labat said.
For the protestors outside Fulton County Jail on Thursday, a complete overhaul of the system and how it treats people is necessary.
“I hear a lot of people, even in Fulton County, say, ‘Oh, they’re criminals. It’s a jail, it’s not supposed to be a hotel,’” Wilkerson said. “But if you read those 97-pages — sometimes they don’t have water, or electricity — you will see the basic necessities aren’t even being met.”
