Justice Department enters proposed consent decree over conditions at Georgia’s troubled Fulton County Jail
By Ray Sanchez, Tierney Sneed and Jason Morris, CNN
(CNN) — The US Justice Department has entered a court-enforceable agreement with Georgia’s Fulton County over jail conditions that federal investigators have described as inhumane, violent and unsanitary.
The 71-page proposed consent decree, along with a complaint, were filed in federal court, and must still be approved by a judge, the Justice Department and the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced Friday.
“Detention in the Fulton County Jail amounted to a death sentence for dozens of people who have been murdered or who died as a result of inhumane conditions inside the facility,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
The agreement follows the results of a 16-month Justice Department investigation, which said the county jail unconstitutionally subjected detainees to deplorable conditions ranging from broken toilets to pest infestations to inadequate medical and mental health care to failing to protect people from violence behind bars.
Ryan Buchanan, US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, in a statement on Friday said the proposed agreement “serves as a cooperative measure to address the grievous pattern of inhumane – and frequently violent – treatment of people in custody, along with the filthy and unsanitary living conditions they endure while awaiting formal charges or trials.”
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said it anticipated the Justice Department filing and that it is working with county and federal authorities on a plan to improve jail conditions.
“This consent order is a roadmap to a better future for our facility, staff, and the individuals entrusted to our care,” Sheriff Patrick Labat said in a statement. “Together, these opportunities will build meaningful and long-lasting change.”
The proposed agreement calls on jail officials to develop plans to keep detainees safe from violence, improve staffing and supervision, provide better medical and mental health care, keep lockups clean, sanitary and free of pests, stop the use of isolation to house vulnerable people at risk of self-harm, and offer adequate special education services for underaged detainees with disabilities, according to the Justice Department.
Federal officials in November said jail conditions violated the US Constitution’s Eighth and 14th Amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The DOJ civil rights investigation, announced in 2023, was sparked in part by the death of Lashawn Thompson, an incarcerated man who died in a cell in the jail’s mental health unit covered in lice and filth the previous year, according to the department.
At least three officials at the jail stepped down amid an investigation into Thompson’s death. Thompson’s family reached a $4 million settlement with Fulton County in August 2023.
“The Thompson family is certainly pleased with the DOJ and Fulton County and the sheriff’s office agreeing to a consent decree. It is our desire the consent decree is enforced and adhered to,” Michael Harper, an attorney for the family, told CNN on Saturday.
Within weeks of the launch of the federal investigation in July 2023, six deaths were reported at the jail, including a man who died during a series of violent assaults in which at least seven people were stabbed across five jail units in 24 hours, according to DOJ.
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners has approved about $300 million “to fully address the facility needs,” which include renovations, board Chairman Robb Pitts told reporters in November.
CNN’s Ashley R. Williams, Ryan Young, Nick Valencia, Hannah Rabinowitz and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
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