Should the Fulton County Jail expand or fix conditions? Does Expansion mean conditions are fixed or does is a new jail the fix. iisues are irgger than the antiutd bricks and mortar, it’s the thinking that thought it s right.
Over the past couple of decades the jail has been at the cener of the judicial and prison reform disccusion, with RICE Street being one fo the most controversil detention facilities in the southern states.
The Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia is known for its unconstitutionally dangerous conditions. In 2024, the US Department of Justice found that the jail is “inhumane, violent and hazardous”.
- The jail was built in 1989 to hold 1,125 prisoners, but now houses more than 3,000.
- The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office operates and administers the jail.
- The jail is also known as Rice Street.
- The jail has a dress code that prohibits see-through clothing, tight-fitting clothing, and clothing with holes or rips.
- Visitors are asked to walk through a metal detector and may be subject to a wand search.
- Visitors should allow officers to search any bags, packages, or personal belongings.
- Visitors cannot call inmates directly, but can set up a phone account with Securus to allow inmates to call them.
Rep. Tanya Miller Condemns State Takeover of Atlanta Jail in SB 7 as an Unconstitutional Overreach
State Representative Tanya Miller (D-Atlanta) is speaking out against Senate Bill 7, a bill that forces Atlanta to make its municipal jail available for use by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. The measure, pushed by Republican lawmakers, mandates that municipalities hand over local detention facilities under certain conditions, overriding local control and seizing cities and counties of their property.
“This is an outrageous overreach,” said Rep. Miller. “The state has no business dictating what Atlanta can and cannot do with its own property. These senate Republicans claim to be the party of local control, yet here they are, forcing their will onto the city of Atlanta. If they truly cared about the conditions in the Fulton County Jail, they would answer the county’s pleas to fund improvements to the jail instead of passing laws requiring restrictive bail practices for misdemeanor and non violent offenders. These policies only exacerbate the overcrowding crisis plaguing Fulton County. Perhaps if they spent more time addressing the dangerous and abysmal conditions of our state prison system—an actual state responsibility—we wouldn’t be in the state of emergency we are in with our state prison system due to years of intentional Republican neglect and underfunding.”
Legal experts and local leaders have raised serious constitutional concerns about SB7, calling it an unprecedented infringement on local control and municipal authority. This bill is part of a troubling pattern of Republican lawmakers disregarding democratic principles when it suits their political agenda as it relates to the City of Atlanta.
Rep. Miller is calling on Republican lawmakers to drop this misguided effort and focus on real solutions—like fixing and funding improvements for Georgia’s broken correctional system instead of passing laws that make the crisis worse. Or, better yet, to join Democrats and address issues such as strengthening public education, prioritizing policies that create jobs that pay a living wage, and increasing access to quality mental healthcare to reduce the need for more Georgia prison beds. “Jails are meant to keep dangerous offenders off the streets, not to function as de facto mental health warehouses,” Rep. Miller concluded.
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