Security contractor cuts ties with Fulton County jail citing non-payment; employees walk off job

ATLANTA - Strategic Security Corporation (SSC) announced on Thursday that it has terminated all services with the Fulton County Jail due to what the company is calling a "breach of contract for non-payment of services."

SSC contract employees received a text message directing them to abandon their posts. In these text messages, SSC advised their employees that, effective immediately, the contract had ended, and they would be clocked out by SSC at 2:15 p.m. Employees could be seen walking out of the jail. As of 5 p.m., the company said all relevant parties had been notified.

SSC says they regret the decision because it will cause a potential "safety" issue, but went on to say they had "no choice."

"Despite multiple efforts to resolve the situation, including numerous emails, phone calls, meetings, and notices to various offices including the Sheriff’s Office, the Mayor of Atlanta’s Office, the County Commissioners Office, and even the Governor’s Office, no viable solution has been proposed by the responsible parties," Strategic Secuirty Corp. stated in a news release. "Regrettably, no timeline for payment or good faith attempt to address the outstanding balance has been made."

In response, the Fulton County Sheriff's Office announced that it is facing a significant budget crisis. Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat stated that as of Aug. 29, there is an outstanding balance of $1,076,464.67 owed to Strategic Security Corp. (SSC) for three months. A funding shortfall for this contract has created an emergency situation.

"This exigent circumstance has enabled us to establish new mechanisms and procedures to address this situation by expediting contingent hiring. Nearly 50 SSC employees came to the jail this evening and were giving conditional offers of employment as a security specialist," the sheriff's office stated in a news release. "This is a permanent and fulltime position with benefits. Some employees that were scheduled to work tonight were able to work immediately after completing Fulton County employment paperwork."

"During our conversations today, during our negotiations today, they actually told their people to abandon their posts," Sheriff Labat told FOX 5. "So at that point, I found that disingenuous, and we found a way to move forward."

Additional personnel from all FCSO divisions were deployed to staff the areas of the jail that were left abandoned, Labat stated.

"Tonight, as I addressed the nearly 50 women and men who were interested in maintaining employment, my team and I were thanked for the opportunity," said Labat.

In a press release, the Fulton County Sheriff's Office stated that the office "has been severely underfunded" and that this is an issue they have actively been addressing with Fulton County Government officials since 2021.

"So this is a budgetary issue that we have continually fought for, so we were not in a position. Again we talk about the historic underfunding of the sheriff’s office and that played a large part," Labat said.

Meanwhile, the contractor says it remains open to dialogue and cooperation in order to find a mutually acceptable solution.

FOX 5 reached out to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners for a response to the sheriff’s assertion that they are underfunded.  In response, they sent this chart, which they say shows a significant increase in funding for the Sheriff’s Office over the last five years.