The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a report Nov. 14 alleging that conditions within Georgia’s Fulton County jail system violate its inmates’ constitutional and statutory rights.
The DOJ opened its investigation in July 2023 after four inmates died in their cells in the mental health unit, the DOJ said in its report.
Fulton County didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by publication time.
In September 2022, Lashawn Thompson was reported to have been “neglected to death” and found in his cell malnourished and covered in body lice.
“Lashawn Thompson’s horrific death was symptomatic of a pattern of dangerous and dehumanizing conditions in the Fulton County Jail,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on the report. “The Justice Department’s report concluded that Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office allowed unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the Jail.”
Thompson, a homeless man who had a history of mental illness, was arrested for simple battery after spitting at a Georgia Tech police officer and held on a prior warrant.
There were three other deaths in the mental health unit leading up to the investigation, two of which were incidents in which the victims’ cellmates killed them.
“Within weeks of opening our investigation, six more Black men had died in the Jail,” the DOJ said in the report. “One person was found unresponsive in his cell after his cellmate strangled him. And days later, tensions in the Jail erupted in violence: within 24 hours, five units in the Jail saw violent assaults, at least seven people were stabbed, and one person was killed.”
The DOJ concluded that Fulton County officials failed to provide a safe environment for inmates, including those with mental health issues.
“As a result, people incarcerated in the Fulton County Jail suffered harms from pest infestation and malnourishment and were put at substantial risk of serious harm from violence by other incarcerated people—including homicides, stabbings and sexual abuse,” Garland said.
The DOJ report also found that some jail officials used force against inmates without “adequate justification.”
“This includes a practice of deploying Tasers against incarcerated people without reasonable cause,” the report said. “Understaffing in the facility contributes to the excessive use of force, as do poor policies, training, and the failure of supervisors to identify, correct, and discipline officers.”
The report alleged that the facilities “do not meet basic constitutional standards” due to a “state of serious disrepair, with standing water collecting in living areas, exposed wires, pests poorly controlled, and deficient service for providing clean clothing and sheets.”
“These conditions are dangerous and unsanitary,” the DOJ said. “Meals are served to the incarcerated population in an unsanitary manner and do not meet nutritional standards.”
The report also alleged that medical and mental health care for inmates is substandard. The conditions of the facilities themselves, such as solitary confinement, increase symptoms of mental illness, the DOJ said.
U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan with the Northern District of Georgia said inmates in the Fulton County jail system awaiting charges and trials are subject to unsanitary living conditions while at risk of “brutal physical attacks” and “frequent excessive force.”
“Our Constitution requires humane conditions while incarcerated that, at a minimum, ensure people in custody are safe,” Buchanan said. “The findings regarding the Fulton County Jail reveal grave and diffuse failures to safeguard the men and women housed in its facilities, including a disturbing frequency of deaths among incarcerated people.”
