The report issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) condemning the abysmal conditions at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday comes as Fulton County faces a backlog of more than 40,000 cases, which may have contributed to the concerns raised in the report about the lengthy jail stays experienced by those incarcerated at the troubled facility.
The 97-page report containing the findings from the DOJ investigation that began last year accused the jail of violating the U.S. Constitution through the physical conditions at the jail, the county’s inability to guarantee the safety of inmates, and alleged violations of laws designed to protect Americans with disabilities, but also noted inmates “spend long periods detained in the Jail.”
According to the investigators, the average duration of an inmate’s detention at the Fulton County Jail was 279 days in March 2024, when the DOJ also identified 245 inmates who spent at least two years in the jail, as well as 14 who spent more than five years in the facility, and one who spent more than a decade at the Fulton County Jail.
“These lengthy periods of confinement are more consistent with time spent in prisons than a jail meant for pretrial detention,” the DOJ investigators wrote.
Lengthy stays in Fulton County Jail are reported by the DOJ as the county continues to suffer from a backlog in criminal cases.
Multiple parties have attempted to assign blame for the backlog, which is down from its reported high of 206,000 cases to about 40,000, as the Fulton County Magistrate Court recently blamed the county government for allegedly slashing her budget, while former U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler previously argued District Attorney Fani Willis is responsible for the backlog because she allegedly focused on her case against President-elect Donald Trump at the expense of the citizens of Fulton County.
“We really don’t have the rule of law right now in Fulton County,” Loeffler said last year. She accused Willis of “blindly” pursuing charges against Trump, leaving the county’s justice system “frozen.”
Willis previously rejected blame for the conditions at the Fulton County Jail after the Georgia Senate launched an investigation into the conditions at the facility, declaring she “is not responsible” for the conditions at the jail, and instead urging senators to examine the state’s prisons.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat, who directly oversees the jails, was accused last year of using the jail’s Inmate Welfare Fund as his personal “slush fund.” He allegedly used the money to purchase new vehicles for the department, as well as gift cards, party supplies, and ham giveaways.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Fulton County Jail” by Fulton County.
