The Justice Department has entered into a consent decree with Fulton County calling for a series of improvements at the county jail aimed at ending violations of prisoners’ constitutional rights, the federal agency announced Friday.
The feds launched an investigation into conditions at the Fulton County Jail in July 2023 based on complaints that jail employees were engaging in a pattern of inhumane – and frequently violent – treatment of prisoners. The jail also was accused of housing prisoners awaiting formal charges or trials in filthy and unsanitary living conditions in violation of the 8th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The investigation began following the death in 2022 of Lashawn Thompson, a prisoner at the Fulton jail found dead covered in bed bugs and insects…