Georgia’s Fulton County Jail Conditions Violate Inmates’ Constitutional Rights: DOJ Report

Fulton County, Georgia, and the sheriff’s office violated the constitutional rights of people housed in the county jail, according to a new report released Thursday by the Department of Justice.

“The Fulton County Jail is failing to adequately protect incarcerated people from the substantial risk of serious harm from violence, including murders and stabbings, by other incarcerated people,” according to a report from the Department of Civil Rights Division Justice.

On Thursday, a top Civil Rights Division official presented the report’s findings at a news conference.

“Detention at the Fulton County Jail is tantamount to a death sentence for dozens of people who have been murdered or died as a result of the jail’s squalid conditions,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the DOJ. said. “It is not only adults, but also young people who are subjected to conditions and treatment that violate the Constitution and defy federal law.”

The report found other problems at the prison, including excessive use of force, poor living conditions, health care that does not meet “basic constitutional standards” and the inability to provide special education to 17-year-old children in their custody.

Georgia is one of the few states that charges 17-year-olds as adults, and the Justice Department found that worsened the prison’s ability to care for inmates.

“None of these problems are new. And despite widespread awareness of these issues, unconstitutional and illegal conditions have persisted,” the report said. “Vulnerable populations – including children, gay or transgender people, people with medical and mental health conditions, and others – often bear the brunt of these conditions.”

The prison was also the place where newly elected President Donald Trump turned himself in he was indicted in Georgia about his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Clarke said she looks forward to working with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office to find a resolution.

U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said at the news conference that the findings were “shocking.”

The investigation started after a man was found dead in his prison cell in the Fulton County Jail in 2022.

“A medical examiner reported that his malnourished body was infested with a ‘massive presence of body lice’ and concluded that the man had been ‘deadly neglected,'” the report said.

According to the report, several inmates died over the course of the investigation, including in April 2024 when one inmate was stabbed more than 20 times.

“Acts of violence by incarcerated people against other incarcerated people in prison include murders, stabbings and sexual abuse,” the report said. “People with serious mental illness, people who identify as gay or transgender, and young people are particularly vulnerable to violence in prison. Poor supervision, classification, prison maintenance, contraband controls and investigations contribute to the unacceptable violence.”

Six people have died in prison from 2022 to date, according to the report, which notes that “murders, stabbings and assaults are common.”

“In 2023 alone we identified 314 stabbings and more than 8,000 assaults,” Clarke said. “The Fulton County Jail had as many stabbings in one month as the Miami Dade County Jail had all year, and that is the jail with one and a half times more people since 2022.”

According to the report, inmates with mental health problems represent more than half (62%) of the population.

“Demand for competency restoration services, which exacerbates the challenges faced by the population with mental illness, has exceeded the availability of such services in Georgia,” the report said. “When people charged with violent crimes are found to be incompetent to stand trial and meet the criteria for inpatient treatment, they are often held in jail for long periods awaiting placement in a state hospital.”

Data collected by the sheriff’s office may undercount violence at the jail, the Justice Department says.

The civil rights investigation focused on six areas: living conditions, protection from harm, use of force, medical and mental health care, and discrimination against people with psychiatric disabilities.

The prison has double the bed space, leading to severe overcrowding, the report said.

There are also nutritional problems in prison, according to the report, which shows that 90% of people in mental health care are “significantly malnourished with marked muscle wasting”.

Fulton County did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.