Fulton County Jail Study Highlights Rice Street Problems

Roz Edward

2 months ago

After three years of tackling a historic court backlog, Project ORCA has officially wrapped up, marking a major victory for Fulton County’s justice system. The initiative, launched in December 2021 with $81 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, successfully cleared nearly 140,000 cases that had piled up due to COVID-19. Today, fewer than 10,000 cases remain. We are on track to eliminate the backlog entirely within months.

In addition to expediting justice, Project ORCA helped reduce the population at Fulton County Jail and cut the average length of stay for detainees. The project also created jobs, with 290 temporary workers transitioning into full-time county positions, while another 238 moved on from county employment.

County and jail officials are now focused on long-term solutions to prevent delays and keep jail numbers down. Key initiatives include a new Diversion Center to provide alternatives to incarceration, subsidized ankle monitors for eligible individuals, enhancements to Accountability Courts to address underlying issues and major investment — up to $300 million — in jail renovations.

In May of 2024, the Senate Committee on Public Safety chaired by Majority Whip Sen. Randy Robertson (R-Cataula) held a series meeting regarding conditions at the beleaguered Fulton County Jail. The investigations were initiated in July of 2023 following the horrific death of Lashawn Thompson who in September of 2022 was found dead in a filthy jail cell laying in his own waste face down in a cell toilet after having been eaten alive by bed bugs.

On Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued an official and scathing report regarding the conditions in the jail in Atlanta, saying it “violate[d] the constitutional and statutory rights of people incarcerated … [and] killings, stabbings, and assaults are common in the jail.”

More than 1,000 assaults occurred in the jail in 2023, including 314 stabbings, according to the report. “In 2023, the rate of stabbings at the Jail was 1.5 times the rate of stabbings in the New York City Jails and more than 27 times the rate of all incidents involving an edged weapon in the Miami-Dade County Jails,” the report states. “The Jail had as many stabbings in a single month as the Miami-Dade County Jails – which house 1.5 times more people – had all year.”

In addition, the report states, “In May 2023, an assailant dug a hole through a shower wall to enter an incarcerated person’s housing zone and stab[bed] him,” the report states. “Later that month, a fight broke out between 26 people on two different zones, and an incarcerated person told officers that he was lying on his bed when an assailant came through a hole near the toilet via a pipe chase and stabbed him.”

Following the release of the report, Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts and Sheriff Patrick Labat released a joint statement regarding the DOJ findings.

“While we are still reviewing the detailed report issued today by the Department of Justice regarding their civil rights investigation into the Fulton County Jail, Fulton County has worked closely with DOJ officials throughout this investigation.

Everyone at Fulton County shares the goal of ensuring that our Jail is safe and humane, and we agree with the Department of Justice that the issues identified are fixable. We believe our planned repairs and other programs will address the needed Jail improvements and are committed to continuing to working with the Department of Justice and the community to address the issues identified,” the statement said.

The notorious facility made more national headlines when former president Donald Trump and 16 of his cohorts in the Georgia elections scandal were booked at the facility in August of 2023 on RICO and election tampering charges.