Advocates protest plan to build new $2B Fulton County Jail as commissioners weigh options

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A group of civil rights advocates gathered in downtown Atlanta at the Fulton County Courthouse on Wednesday to protest plans to build a new Fulton County Jail.

Protesters included residents from the area, as well as organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Prison Policy Initiative and the Southern Center for Human Rights.

At the protest event, advocates made their case for why a new $2 billion jail should not happen, sharing a report “debunking the case” for it to be built.

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The protesters said in a statement before the event that the issues currently impacting the jail would likely continue even if a new building is constructed, and said their goal is to shrink the footprint of the Fulton County criminal legal system and to ensure the system of confinement is safe, humane and habitable.

“A new jail would succeed only at ensuring the root causes of premature deaths and despair, including racial inequality, become more entrenched than they are today,” Mark Spencer, M.D. an Atlanta physician and Executive Director of Stop Criminalization of Our Patients, said at the gathering.

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The protest comes as conditions at the jail continue to deteriorate and county officials are at an impasse for how to correct the facility and meet the needs of the jail population.

At recent meetings, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted to cancel a feasibility study proposal. A later commission meeting then failed to get enough support to fund the study, or find new funding sources for construction of the proposed new jail.

The most recent funding discussion revolved around either increasing property taxes by three to four mills, requesting the state legislature create a countywide sales tax for 2025 to fund the construction or a combination of the two methods.

A vote to request the sales tax also did not pass in the commission, leaving the current process at somewhat of a standstill.

In a statement shared with Channel 2 Action News, Fulton County commissioners said work on finding a solution is ongoing.

“A real solution will be identified through bold thinking, collaboration and real leadership by all of our elected and appointed officials in every branch of government. The time to start that work is now,” Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said.

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