Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labatt Calls County Officials Lack of Funding for Jail Punitive: Threatens to Sue

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labatt, after several years of contentious debate and struggling to obtain adequate funding for the Fulton County Jail staff and operations, has announced his intention to file a lawsuit against the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. He claims that the withholding of funds is punitive and an effort to control the running of the jail.

Labatt suffered more financial stress when the Strategic Security Corp. severed its relationship with Fulton County Jail and discontinued providing security services for the much embattled detention facility, aka Rice Street in Atlanta.

“Despite multiple efforts to resolve the situation, including numerous emails, phone calls, meetings, and notices to various offices including the sheriff’s office, the Mayor of Atlanta’s Office, the County Commissioner’s Office, and even the Governor’s Office, no viable solution has been proposed by the responsible parties,” the company said in a statement. “Regrettably, no timeline for payment or good faith attempt to address the outstanding balance has been made.”

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat admitted in a press conference following the SSC’s decision in August 2024 to discontinue services that his office had not paid the company in three months and had racked up about $1 million in outstanding payments.

Labat went on to criticize SSC for its abruptness in ending the agreement with his office and putting jail personnel at risk by advising their 80 employees to abandon their posts immediately on Thursday, Aug. 29. Labat added that the jail hired more than 50 percent of the former SSC guards back with a 10 percent increase in pay.

Buy Lababtts problems with the Fulton County Board of Commissioners extends back to heated disagreements over the years on whether or not to renovate the current facility which has been the subject of multiple investigations and accusations of neglect and dysfunction in some cases leading to inmate deaths or to build a new modern facility to improve jail operations.

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