Cobb County jail power restored, outage impacts hundreds of inmates

COBB COUNTY, Ga - The Cobb County Sheriff's Office said crews restored power inside the facility on Tuesday morning after an outage lasted more than one day.

Over the weekend, sheriff's officials released a statement saying a water leak caused a power outage in one section of the facility. The sheriff's office said the outage affected the "Tower" housing facility. The sheriff's office said contractors and maintenance found parts and made repairs to safely restore power to the "Tower" area at around 2:15 a.m. on Tuesday. About 600 detainees were impacted, officials said.

During the outage, community activist Amy Barnes said she's heard from detainees, who told her the heat was brutal.

"We have detainees who are stripping down to their underwear. It's going from 60s to sweltering 80s with no air conditioning. They are being tortured with this heat," said Barnes.

"I understand that A/C is a luxury, but you have so many bodies in such a small space that I can only assume how uncomfortable that is," said a woman who wanted to go by the name "Red".  Her boyfriend is in the jail.

Jayling Rivera's boyfriend was one of the 600 impacted detainees.

Rivera said visitations were canceled. She was concerned about what the sweltering heat, no lights, and no visitation will do to the inmates.

"When it's hot, people get frustrated, and that's my biggest concern, people are going to get provoked because it's hot," said Rivera.

The sheriff's office said deputies increased safety and security checks. Personnel increased to ensure adequate care for the detainees and staff safety.

"I feel like if you're able to house this many people you should have a better plan when something like this happens," said Red.