Current:Home > ScamsGeorgia sheriff laments scrapped jail plans in county under federal civil rights investigation -PrimeWealth Guides
Georgia sheriff laments scrapped jail plans in county under federal civil rights investigation
View
Date:2025-04-17 10:34:25
ATLANTA (AP) — The sheriff in a Georgia county where prison conditions have led to a federal civil rights investigation criticized a decision not to move forward with plans for a new jail, calling the vote “shortsighted” on Friday.
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday voted 4-3 to approve a request for proposals to assess jail facilities, recommend renovations and provide an estimate for a future special purpose building. The U.S. Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation last year over longstanding problems with jail conditions in the county.
“This project is really putting a Band-Aid on open-heart surgery,” Sheriff Pat Labat, who has pushed aggressively for a new jail, told reporters Friday.
County commissioners in May voted to end a search for a project manager to oversee the building of a new jail at an estimated cost of $1.7 billion, news outlets reported. State legislators had said they wouldn’t allow a new local sales tax to fund the project and commissioners were unwilling to increase property tax rates.
The maximum allowable budget for the new project is $300 million.
Labat has long complained about dangerous conditions at the jail, including overcrowding, crumbling infrastructure and critical staffing shortages. He maintains that the only solution is to build a new jail that is more in line with modern corrections practices. In addition to being a safer and more humane jail it would also be more cost effective, the sheriff said.
“The county is responsible for the maintenance of this facility while we oversee it,” Labat said. “Ultimately, the county funds the actual maintenance and what it looks like is $300,000 a month. We’ve had since May of last year nearly 15,000 work orders just for this building alone. The building, the infrastructure itself is out of date.”
Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. could not support the new jail plan, he said during Wednesday’s meeting.
“I believe we need a new facility,” he said. “The facility is crumbling apart, and I believe this is the wrong direction.”
Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman said she had been one of the biggest proponents of a new jail but that the reality had sunk in that “we do not have public support” for it, she said. She did vote for the renovation plan.
“To do nothing is to continue to tell the public that we will not make the hard decisions when we need to make them,” she said.
Some commissioners said they are working under uncertainty since the Department of Justice has yet to issue any findings from its investigation.
When the Justice Department began investigating, it cited violence, filthy conditions and the September 2022 death of Lashawn Thompson, one of dozens of people who has died in county custody during the past few years. Thompson, 35, died in a bedbug-infested cell in the jail’s psychiatric wing.
Last August, former President Donald Trump went to the Fulton County Jail to be booked and to sit for the first-ever mug shot of a former president after he was indicted on charges related to efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Civil rights groups and advocates for people held in jails and prisons applauded the county’s new direction on the jail.
“We’re elated to hear the news that the $2B jail will be scrapped. This was a long fight with local advocates demanding their voices to be heard,” said Michael Collins, senior policy director at Color of Change. “For far too long, those in power have disregarded the will of the people. Today, that has been rectified.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia also applauded the decision.
“We reiterate that the wholesale warehousing of people pre-trial is expensive and does not make our communities safer,” executive director Andrea Young said. “There are better solutions and we will continue to advocate for more effective approaches to safe communities.”
veryGood! (954)
Related
- The White House is cracking down on overdraft fees
- November jobs report shows economy added 199,000 jobs; unemployment at 3.7%
- Teacher gifting etiquette: What is (and isn't) appropriate this holiday
- Why do doctors still use pagers?
- Who's hosting 'Saturday Night Live' tonight? Musical guest, how to watch Dec. 14 episode
- Tennessee Supreme Court blocks decision to redraw state’s Senate redistricting maps
- New Deion Sanders documentary series: pins, needles and blunt comments
- Derek Hough Shares Update on Wife Hayley Erbert’s Health After Skull Surgery
- Trump's 'stop
- Jonathan Majors begged accuser to avoid hospital, warning of possible ‘investigation,’ messages show
Ranking
- McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
- Federal judge poised to prohibit separating migrant families at US border for 8 years
- Republican Adam Kinzinger says he's politically homeless, and if Trump is the nominee, he'll vote for Biden — The Takeout
- Review: Tony Shalhoub makes the 'Monk' movie an obsessively delightful reunion
- See you latte: Starbucks plans to cut 30% of its menu
- 2 nurses, medical resident injured in attack at New Jersey hospital, authorities say
- A pregnant woman in Kentucky sues for the right to get an abortion
- Biden thanks police for acting during UNLV shooting, renews calls for gun control measures
Recommendation
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
On sidelines of COP28, Emirati ‘green city’ falls short of ambitions, but still delivers lessons
Every college football conference's biggest surprises and disappointments in 2023
Julia Roberts Reveals the Hardest Drug She's Ever Taken
'We're reborn!' Gazans express joy at returning home to north
Horoscopes Today, December 8, 2023
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott reveals the groups that got some of her $2.1 billion in gifts in 2023
Horoscopes Today, December 8, 2023