Five Fulton County Commissioners — Robb Pitts, Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, Bridget Thorne, Bob Ellis, and Dana Barrett — sent Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta City Council a letter offering $56.5 million to purchase the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC), giving the City until August 31 to respond. Commissioner Marvin Arrington did not sign the letter.
The offer responds to Dickens’s July 30 letter withdrawing an earlier $80 million City offer to sell the jail to the County. Commissioners said the new figure reflects a 2025 valuation and accounts for an estimated $75 million in needed renovations.
Fulton County said transferring ACDC would save the City about $27 million annually in maintenance and operations costs. The County’s current lease of up to 700 beds at the facility expires in December 2026.
The friction escalated when Fulton County commissioners voted down the Mayor’s proposed extension of six Tax Allocation Districts — the critical funding mechanism needed to fuel the NRI — while simultaneously pursuing a standalone $1.3 billion plan to build a new county jail. In response, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners passed legislation demanding further information from the City of Atlanta before reconsidering the TAD extensions.
Proponents of the sale of ACDC to the County say the deal makes good fiscal sense for the City. Not only will the city have $80M in capital to invest as it sees fit, but the City will also save ~$25M/year that is currently spent to operate and maintain ACDC.
August 31, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. for Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta City Council to respond.
