News broke on Thursday that Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat inked an agreement with Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman in April to allow up to 70 detainees at the troubled Fulton County Jail to be relocated to the nearby county, with the agreement reportedly citing Fulton County’s 149,200-case backlog.
Reports indicated Labat planned to send some of the inmates in Fulton County to other jails earlier this year, but Appen Media Group published details about the agreement struck with Forsyth County for the first time on Thursday.
Fulton County may transfer up to 70 of its detainees to Forsyth County each month, though the outlet reported that no more than 26 inmates have been housed at the facility, as the jail recorded 26 inmates from Fulton County in September. It recorded 23 in August and October, the outlet added.
Closures of the Fulton County court system during the COVID-19 pandemic were attributed to the delay in the agreement, with the outlet reporting it acknowledged Fulton County “is suffering a $149,200-case backlog from COVID-19 induced court closures,” extending blame to the pandemic for causing Fulton County Jail to “exceed its maximum capacity.” Labat’s office is paying Forsyth County $75 per day per inmate to cover their meals and medical services.
A Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office spokesman told Forsyth News the “mutual aid” agreement “was made by Fulton County” and “happens from time to time.”
The reports come as Fulton County Jail continues to suffer from extreme overcrowding, with reporting from October indicating its current inmate population is still about twice its maximum rated occupancy, even after 1,000 inmates were relocated.
Ten inmates have died at Fulton County Jail so far in 2023, with the most recent deaths occurring in September.
Fulton County Jail became the subject of intense criticism by Georgia Republicans after former President Donald Trump was required to surrender at the troubled facility, alongside his co-defendants, to formally receive charges in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ election case.
While the agreement between Labat and Freeman blamed COVID-19 shutdowns for the backlog, Republicans have blamed Willis’ management of the district attorney’s office.
Former Senator Kelly Loeffler said the criminal justice system in Fulton County is “frozen” because Willis is “blindly” pursuing Trump ahead of the 2024 election, while Georgia State Senator Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) compared the conditions at the jail to a “concentration camp,” charging that Willis is “obsessed” with her “political witch hunt” against the former president “for her own political gain.”
Georgia Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega) led eight Senate Republicans in a formal complaint with the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC) alleging Willis cherry-picked cases based on her political views, but the complaint was effectively paused last week when the Georgia Supreme Court declined to approve the commission’s rules, leaving it without the ability to enforce its rulings.
A separate Senate probe into the conditions at the jail started in October and remains ongoing.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
