The Justice Department has found that egregious conditions at Georgia’s Fulton County Jail — including pest infestation, malnourishment, a lack of adequate medical care and rampant violence that contributed to multiple deaths — violate the constitutional rights of people in custody.
The Justice Department on Thursday announced its findings from a civil rights investigation it opened into conditions at the jail in July 2023.
It found that Georgia officials violated the rights of those incarcerated by failing to protect them from violence, failing to provide humane living conditions, neglecting adequate medical and mental health care, having a pattern of excessive force and confining detainees in “dangerous restrictive housing conditions without due process.”
The investigation was opened after the death of Lashawn Thompson, 35, in September 2022, which sparked public outrage. His body was found malnourished in a bedbug-infested cell in the psychiatric wing, and a private autopsy found he was neglected to death.
The 105-page report details the serious conditions at the jail —described as long-standing, filthy and dangerous — as well as remedial measures Fulton County officials should implement.
Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Fulton County Jail: Home to stabbings, assaults, pests and a lack of care
The lengthy report presented a staggering portrait of violence and death at the jail.
From 2022 to the present, six incarcerated people have died in violent attacks, the report said. Over 300 stabbings involving contraband and makeshift weapons were also reported last year. Four deaths by suicide have also been reported in the past four years, one of them as recently as April, according to the report.
The report found that the jail failed to protect detainees from the risk of harm from violence and sexual violence. Assaults are carried out in the jail using makeshift weapons, and the jail has inadequate practices for reporting and responding to sexual violence, it said.
The report said killings, stabbing and assaults are common. In less than 24 hours in August 2023, at least seven people were stabbed and one was killed in an outburst of violence that spanned five units and three floors, it noted.
Furthermore, jail deputies and detention officers use force against incarcerated people without adequate justification, including deploying Tasers without reasonable cause, the document said.
The facilities were found to be in a state of “serious disrepair,” and living conditions are “hazardous and unsanitary.”
Housing units are flooded with water from broken toilets and sinks; there are cockroaches, rodents and other pests; and the jail took “insufficient steps to control infestations,” the report said. Cells were described as “filthy and unhygienic with dangerous exposed wires.”
The jail also failed to provide enough food, food preparation and service are not sanitary, and detainees have suffered from malnourishment and pest infestation, the report said.
The report found that medical and mental health care also did not meet constitutional standards: There were gaps in medication administration, there is a lack of security staffing, and the jail fails to provide appropriate care in medical emergencies.
And it fails to adequately treat serious mental health needs and prevent a risk of suicide. It is a dire situation, the report found, as people with mental health needs are “overrepresented” in the jail population, yet the jail environment “exacerbates symptoms of mental illness.”
The report found that the jail placed people in isolation without adequate monitoring, saying placement in restrictive housing discriminates against people with mental health disabilities.
Furthermore, there are 17-year-old boys and girls are in the jail, as the state juvenile justice system’s jurisdiction ends at 16. The teens are subjected to violence and excessive force, experience sexual abuse and are uniquely harmed in restrictive housing like isolation, the report said.
The jail also fails to provide special education services to those 17-year-olds who are entitled to them — in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, it said.
Lashawn Thompson
Thompson, who had a history of mental illness and was unhoused, died in the jail three months after his arrest.
The report said that Thompson was accused of spitting at a Georgia Tech police officer and that he was arrested on a simple battery charge; he was held on an old warrant.
The jail failed detainees like Thompson with mental health needs, the report found.
It said four Black men who all had serious mental health needs, including Thompson, died in the mental health unit in under a year. Within weeks of the investigation’s opening, six more Black men died at the jail.
Thompson’s death drew public attention after attorneys for his family released photos of his face and body covered in insects.
In August 2023, Thompson’s family reached a settlement with Fulton County for an undisclosed amount.
In announcing Thursday’s report, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news release: “Lashawn Thompson’s horrific death was symptomatic of a pattern of dangerous and dehumanizing conditions in the Fulton County Jail.
“The unconstitutional and unlawful conditions at the Fulton County Jail have persisted for far too long, and we are committed to working with Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office to remedy them,” he added.
Jail grapples with overpopulation and mental health needs
Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, is the largest county in the state. The jail has a main facility and three annex facilities, and the population is nearly all people with pending criminal charges.
The jail has struggled to “address a ballooning population and overcrowding,” the report said.
Black people are overrepresented in the jail compared with the county’s population. People with mental health needs are also overrepresented.
The report said that “deaths and serious injuries remain prevalent at the jail. Thus far in 2024, three men at the Main Jail have died: one of a suspected drug overdose, one by stabbing and one by suicide.”
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the release: “Detention in the Fulton County Jail has amounted to a death sentence for dozens of people who have been murdered or who died as a result of the atrocious conditions inside the facility. It’s not just adults but also children who are subjected to conditions and treatment that violate the constitution and defy federal law.”
She noted that many held have not been convicted or are serving short sentences for misdemeanors.
The Justice Department said the attorney general can file a federal lawsuit seeking court-ordered remedies. The department provided Fulton County and the local sheriff’s office with a written notice outlining the minimum remedial measures to address the alleged violations.
“The County will work with the Justice Department toward a cooperative resolution,” the release said.
