The Gist 

ATLANTA — State lawmakers announced Thursday the formation of a bipartisan senate subcommittee that will investigate conditions at Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail where 10 inmates have died so far this year.

The announcement at Liberty Plaza in downtown Atlanta marks the first time state lawmakers have publically weighed in on the crisis at the Rice Street facility, which has stirred local outcry, garnered national attention and prompted a federal probe.

“We can’t stand idly by while people are dying and justice is not being adjudicated in a timely manner,” Sen. John Albers, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Safety, said. “Therefore, I have assigned a public safety subcommittee with a deep dive investigation into issues, the root causes and most importantly, the solutions. I have the utmost confidence that this committee of professionals will do what needs to be done.”  

Sen. Randy Robertson, who is vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Public Safety and a retired law enforcement officer, will chair the subcommittee.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, president of the Senate, insisted the subcommittee’s work would not be “adversarial.” 

“We want to help have solutions to this issue,” he said “Anytime you have significant issues going on in your state or in counties or at the federal level, you’ve got to get to the root of the problem.” 

What’s Happening 

Thursday’s announcement comes three months after the U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation into the troubled jail.  The federal agency is looking into inmates’ access to medical care and the use of excessive force by Fulton County Sheriff’s department staff.

On Wednesday, local activists expressed concern about Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat’s plan to move nearly 1,000 inmates to south Georgia and Mississippi in order to repair the jail and deal with overcrowding. Labat wants $30 million from the county for that plan.

Opened in 1989, Fulton County Jail has spiraled into a squalid den of disrepair, drugs and death and has become the poster child of jailhouse justice gone terribly wrong. It was built to house 1,125 inmates but has been known to exceed 3,000.

Ten inmates have died at the jail so far this year. The latest death occurred last month when 24-year-old Shawndre Delmore was found unresponsive in his cell. He died three days later at Grady Memorial Hospital. Last year, the jail had 11 fires, 534 fights, 114 stabbings and at least two homicides, according to prison records and news reports.

 Many of the inmates housed in the jail can’t afford to post bond, and as a result, they’re forced to stay days, months, even years sometimes. 

Why It Matters

State lawmakers could no longer sit on the sidelines, Albers told State Affairs in an interview after Thursday’s announcement. 

“Fulton County’s been doing a lot of finger-pointing at everybody but themselves for many years and that’s why we had to step in,” he said. “It’s our capital county. It’s our largest county. I’m disappointed they couldn’t do it by themselves. But we’re at this juncture and we need to do what is right.”

Albers told State Affairs he recently learned of one inmate who has been at the jail for 10 years. 

When asked if the person was still in jail, Albers said , “as of a few weeks ago, the answer’s yes. Nobody should ever have been there that long.  Ever.”

About 95,000 people are behind bars in Georgia, according to Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit criminal justice public policy think tank in Easthampton, Massachusetts. About 40,000 of those people are in jails. Each year, at least 236,000 different people are booked into local jails in Georgia, according to the think tank.

Once the subcommittee has gathered all of the necessary information, Albers said the committee will put a plan in place. “That plan could involve work.  The county is going to [have to] solve their problems, but there’s also areas where the state or the feds, or even local cities need to step in, in order to help solve the problem. I don’t believe there’s any single-bullet solution to solving it. But, you know, this is a combination of what happens when a lot of processes break down and fail. It’s not just the jail itself. It’s how people come in and come out to the system and get adjudicated through courts and all that stuff. So there’s a lot of work to look at.”

What’s Next?

The newly-formed subcommittee’s first meeting will be at 10 a.m. Nov. 2 in room 450 at the Capitol.   

Subcommittee members include Robertson and Albers; Sen. Mike Dugan, a former Army officer who chairs the Veterans, Military and Homeland Security Committee; Sen. Chuck Payne, a former juvenile probation officer and chair of the  Science and Technology Committee; Sen. Sonya Halpern, chair of the senate’s Fulton County delegation; and Sen. Brian Strickland, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  All the members are Republican with the exception of Halpern, who is Democrat.

Robertson said his goals for the subcommittee include determining “what some of the causation factors are.”

 “Whether it’s funding, whether it’s in management or whether it’s in the courts or the prosecution.  We’ll let the evidence lead us to where the problem is, and then hopefully we’ll have some strong suggestions to help solve this problem,” he said.

Read more about Fulton County Jail and challenges within Georgia’s overall penal system here and here and here.

Check out our summary on TikTok:

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#Georgia lawmakers will investigate the crisis at Atlanta’s Fulton County jail. #fultoncounty #atl #georgianews #gapol #georgiapolitics #crime #jail #fultoncountyjail #shawndredelmore #politics #politicstiktok #politicaltiktok

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Header image: Sens. John Albers (left), Randy Robertson, Marty Harbin, Mike Hodges, Clint Brown, Steve Gooch and Jason Anavitarte listen as Lt. Gov. Burt Jones addresses the crowd at the press conference in response to the incidents and challenges reported at the Fulton County Jail. (Credit: Tammy Joyner)