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Senate committee discussing Fulton County Jail at meeting

By and FOX 5 Atlanta Digital Team
Updated  May 7, 2024 4:31pm EDT
Fulton County
FOX 5 Atlanta

Fulton County Jail under the microscope

Georgia lawmakers want to know more about the problems at the Fulton County Jail and how they can help.

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - The Fulton County Jail subcommittee met on Tuesday morning to continue its discussions about the problems at Fulton County Jail.

This was the sixth meeting of the Senate Committee on Public Safety subcommittee.

The committee, which is chaired by Majority Whip Sen. Randy Robertson, was formed to look into the issues at the jail after 10 inmates died in 2023. Three inmate deaths have been reported so far in 2024.

Additionally, there have been multiple violent incidents, including attacks on staff by inmates.

After asking lots of questions, senators on this subcommittee decided there was no way around it: this jail has to be replaced. 

"These are senators asking questions. We have friends on both sides. We have enemies on neither. We are trying to find out what's going on. Our obligation and oath is to the taxpayers for Georgia," said Sen. Randy Robertson, the majority whip and chairman of the subcommittee, laid the ground rules early. 

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat told the committee significant progress has been made in reducing the jail population through both outsourcing and diversionary programs for non-violent offenders. 

"The multiple outsourcing has allowed us to do several things, one of which we started at the peak of COVID," said Sheriff Labat. "We have been able to release almost 600 individuals, non-violent individuals and/or give them consent bonds." 

The sheriff says that translates into just 1,731 inmates at the main Rice Street jail with no one sleeping on the floor. 

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The Department of Justice announced last year that they were launching an investigation into the jail and three Georgia Democratic lawmakers sent a joint letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in February to demand that the investigation be made a priority.