PR04-005

Date:

March 2, 2004

 
Fulton County Grand Jury Finds Fulton Jail Inadequately Funded, Staffed
 

In a report issued by the Fulton County Grand Jury late Friday, jurors found the Fulton County Jail to be “woefully understaffed”, posing a threat to jailors and the community at large. The jury, whose term expired on Friday, urged that funds be made available to purchase 600 bullet-proof vests for deputies and detention officers who are responsible for guarding 2,900 inmates. The Fulton County Jail was designed to house 2,200 inmates.

In their report, the jurors stated that the “release on bond of people who should not be released poses a threat to the community”. The report added that seventy percent of the jail’s population has been to jail before, and that thirty percent are mentally ill. The jury blamed “insufficient checks and balances” in the release of prisoners, and charged that many inmates “committed crimes while out on bond and during probation, sometimes within a week or two of their arrest.”

In response to the jury’s findings, Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett stated that the criticisms in the report are not a focus on the jail staff, but a system problem. “We find that the people in our jail will be released by the courts on pretrial release programs, and before they go to trial, they’ve committed other crimes and are back in our custody,” said Barrett. “I believe these programs are trying to do the right thing and be a safety valve, but we find that people who are in jail are not suited for release”, Barrett said. “The jail has become a more of a mental health facility for Fulton County, as well as a homeless shelter”, Barrett added. “Our staff does a lot of work getting inmates back to the point where they are physically and mentally healthy, but stabilizing their mental health is a very costly.”

The Grand Jury found that the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office “has done an adequate job of maintaining the jail, given the available and reduced budget, and has actually made some improvements….however, the majority of the problems that remain are due to inadequate funding.”

Barrett said “I am please that the jury was able to see the problems at the jail, and I hope the commissioners will take the matter to heart and our funding will be reviewed. According to the Sheriff, the jail needs an additional $2.5 million dollars.

The jury presentment “strongly recommends that the Board of Commissioners provide funding to the sheriff to hire an unspecified number of new corrections officers, and to negotiate with the city of Atlanta to allow use of the old city jail on Pryor Street to house Fulton County inmates.

According to Atlanta civil attorney David D. Robinson, who served as the grand jury foreman, the Fulton County Jail staffing is inadequate and that the Sheriff was doing all she could under the circumstances handed to her.

For more information, please contact Lieutenant Clarence Huber at (404) 730-4148. Lieutenant Huber can also be reached on his digital pager at (404) 742-6798.