Fulton County scraps jail's inmate welfare fund amid misuse

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - The Fulton County Board of Commissioners has decided to scrap the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office Inmate Welfare Fund. 

The move comes after officials discovered that the Sheriff’s Office was misusing the fund. 

The fund is generated from inmates buying items at the commissary and buying phone time.   

 "I just cannot imagine a scenario when you have a fund, $13 or $14 million in it and the person in charge not knowing what's in the fund nor what the fund is being used for," said Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts.  

The fund is meant to buy items for the inmates such as blankets and mattresses and address emergency inmate needs at the jail.  

Pitts read off some of the items listed in the fund’s expenditures that the fund is not meant to pay for.  

"I see many consultants, automobile purchases, parties, luncheons," he said.  

FOX 5 asked for an interview with Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat and jail leaders but was told no one was available.    

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Office said, "All monies allocated from the Inmate Welfare Fund were expenses in the Sheriff’s Office, although some expenditures were assigned to the wrong fund." 

The statement went on to say that the department has since fired the fund administrator and implemented new accountability protocols including changing the approval and signature authority for the fund.   

But that wasn’t enough for Pitts and several other commissioners.   

In a 4 to 3 vote Wednesday, the Commission abolished the fund and decided to move that money into the county’s general fund.   

"We thought that the best thing to do to get a handle on it right now is to stop cold turkey, stop it in its tracks, begin this audit and start from square one," Pitts said.  

He said Sheriff Labat has already agreed to do a forensic audit on the Inmate Welfare Fund.  

Several commissioners disagreed with the move, voicing concerns over how inmates may be negatively impacted if jail staff no longer had access to the fund.

"I don’t think that that is in the best interest of the inmates to abolish the Inmate Welfare Fund," said Fulton County District 5 Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr.  

"If we just eliminate it, I know they sent us some information about some unintended consequences around contracts and things of that nature," said District 3 Commissioner Dana Barrett.  

They both voted against the move to abolish the fund.  

FOX 5 asked Pitts what’s going to happen to those funds and whether they will still be used to benefit inmates.  

"We're going to set up a specific fund within our general fund, like an enterprise account, where this money will go into this fund, and it will be used to benefit the inmates. It would just be done differently and will be much more accountability going forward," Pitts said.  

But Interim Chief Jailer Col. Curtis Clark told the board that not having easy access to that fund may make it harder for them to address emergencies in the jail. 

"There has to be changes, I don’t disagree with that. But in today’s legislation - it does not afford for us to have a level of comfort to be assured that we’re going to get access to the funding that we need next week … I am deeply disturbed as the interim chief jailer," Clark said.  

Pitts said they’re looking to have some funding still easily accessible from this fund to jail staff.  

"One of the proposals that we're looking at is the possibility of having, let's say, for the sake of conversation, $1 million in the fund for the sheriff and chief jailer to have access to," Pitts said.  

Pitts said the county could then replenish that emergency fund when needed but never over a million dollars.  

In a statement, Sheriff Labat says he was "disappointed" with the county’s decision. 

"We thought we were working collaboratively with the BOC to come up with a compromise. However, we will continue to move forward in the best interest of the inmates in our care and our community," Labat said.  

You can read the full statement from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office below:  

We are disappointed with the Fulton County Board of Commissioners’ decision to abolish the Inmate Welfare Fund managed by the Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Patrick "Pat" Labat has demonstrated his leadership by holding employees accountable and he has been transparent with the remediation efforts that have been taken up to this point and that are ongoing. 

"We thought we were working collaboratively with the BOC to come up with a compromise, however, we will continue to move forward in the best interest of the inmates in our care and our community," says Sheriff Labat. 

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office’s Inmate Welfare Fund passed yearly audits by a company contracted by Fulton County. All monies allocated from the Inmate Welfare Fund were expenses in the Sheriff’s Office, although some expenditures were assigned to the wrong fund. Upon recognition of this confusion, corrective actions were swiftly taken. 

An internal review has been conducted that included the FCSO Internal Auditor, Chief Counsel, Chief of Staff, Chief Jailer, Chief Deputy, Financial Systems Manager, and a new FCSO Finance Director that began October 14, 2023.  Immediate actions stemming from the review include:  

• Termination of the Financial Administrator (the fund administrator)
• Immediate termination of contracts not compliant with the use of funds
• Immediate change in approval and signature authority
• Immediate compliance with best practices for procurement of goods and services and implementation of FCSO and County procedures where appropriate, including: Requiring vendor registration Quotes and bids as appropriate Sign off and approval of expenditures Ongoing internal review by the internal auditor Proper use of requisition forms
• Requiring vendor registration
• Quotes and bids as appropriate
• Sign off and approval of expenditures
• Ongoing internal review by the internal auditor
• Proper use of requisition forms