Senate subcommittee on Fulton County Jail releases recommendations to correct long-standing issues

ATLANTA — The Fulton County Jail Subcommittee of the Georgia Senate released its draft findings and recommendations for how to correct issues at the jail facility.

The released findings and suggestions come after months of testimony, hearings and research regarding issues at the Rice Street Jail.

The Georgia Senate began their investigation into the jail’s operations after a number of inmate deaths and issues regarding transparency and organizational challenges between Fulton County and the sheriff’s office.

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The subcommittee was established to review the jail population, structural integrity of the jail, judicial processes in Fulton County and funding and staffing for the sheriff’s office.

The investigation also followed the opening of a federal civil rights investigation into the jail by the U.S. Department of Justice that began in July 2023.

While the recommendations are now public, they are not an order. At this stage, next steps have not yet been determined in terms of implementing or acting on the Senate’s suggestions.

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Here are the recommendations and findings of the subcommittee:

• The Fulton County Commission should oversee all tax money set aside for the construction of a new jail or renovation of the existing facility
• The City of Atlanta should transfer the Atlanta Detention Center to Fulton County to use for confinement needs of detainees awaiting trial
• Fulton County should partner with the Georgia Sheriff’s Association and employ a third-party jail expert to oversee construction, renovation or consolidation
• The county should employ a maintenance team solely to work at and maintain facilities at the Fulton County Jail
• The county should establish a Fulton County Jail Advisory Board representing the Fulton County Commission, Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, Fulton County Clerk of Courts and Fulton County Superior Court
• Fulton County Commissioners should create a task force to identify duplicated services, resource and staffing that are already provided within the Fulton County criminal justice system and include FSCO and the Atlanta Police Department in it
• All natural and unnatural deaths at the jail must be reported and investigated the same way a death would be investigated in the bounds of Fulton County
• All Fulton County Superior Court Judges carry full dockets
• The Fulton County Clerk of Superior Court should establish policies and procedures to track felony cases from arrest to adjudication to generate monthly reports by all Fulton County criminal justice agencies
• Fulton County DA’s Office and Office of Public Defender should create processes and policies to allow for all non-violent and non-sexual offenses to be expedited in court
• APD should provide all evidence from felony cases to the Fulton County DA’s Office without the need of an open records request
• FCSO and the DA’s Office should establish policies related to requests for proposal involving the Fulton County Finance Department as advisors when selecting contracts for special needs and services not in their annual budgets
• Public and Private relationships between the County Commission and sheriff’s office “has been tenuous, unprofessional and not the conduct citizens should expect,” and should hold weekly professional meetings to improve the dynamic and solve problems
• The County Commission should work with the Sheriff to benchmark best practices and industry standards to create and pass a transparent and responsible budget, and provide oversight without micromanaging the sheriff’s office budget once it is passed
• The workload of the Atlanta Circuit is not currently fully reported to Superior Court Judges. The County should perform an audit of the court and implement best practices
• The Fulton County DA should conduct an audit from a third-party expert to streamline processes with courts for adjudication of cases

Following the release of the Senate Subcommittee’s recommendations, Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts said the commission has reviewed the report and suggestions about the jail, saying they had shared recommendations of their own with the committee in May.

The commission’s recommendations were:

• Increasing state funding for behavioral health beds (DBHDD Bed Study)
• Funding the addition of three Superior Court judges and staff
• Passing statewide Case Management Standards
• Exploring the transfer of available jail facilities to the County

Pitts’ statement said that some of the committee recommendations released Friday morning were already in progress, noting that the county had sought to acquire the Atlanta City Detention Center for more than 10 years.

In closing, Pitts said the county looks forward to working with state legislators in 2025 to implement the solutions and recommendations in their report.

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