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"Pay for Protection" scheme poses inmate issues at Fulton County Jail, families speak out
FOX 5 Atlanta's Morse Diggs says Pay for Protection scheme in Fulton County Jail is linked to commissary, or inmate accounts, and has caused family members to speak out. A mother says she overheard her son having an altercation with another inmate, eventually leading to his assault.
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - Assaults on inmates at the Fulton County jail may not be that uncommon. That was the response to a FOX 5 exclusive story detailing how a relative sent money to the jail to try to ensure an inmate would not be assaulted.
The first account from Sabrina Jones, a godmother of an inmate, detailed how that young man was cut with homemade weapons and had his teeth knocked out.
The violence tied to the inside jail bank or commissary account.
On Wednesday, a mother told FOX 5 she was on the phone with her son when gang members interrupted the call -- warning "they were going to shank my son," said the mother who did not want to be identified.
She said her son was immediately beaten. "I was hysterical," she recalled.
The mother said she called repeatedly until someone at the jail picked up the phone.
Both cases involve money family members’ contact with the jail to "put on the books" cash at the Fulton jail commissary.
It is a mechanism for those incarcerated to purchase food, snacks and other items that are not already supplied by the county.
What has been happening, according to these family members, are urgent pleas from their loved ones to send funds to other inmates -- a scheme labeled protection payments.
A spokesperson for Sheriff Patrick Labat said the incidents are under investigation.