As you step off the elevators in Fulton County’s main jail, you hear the building’s quiet hum and maybe a few voices echoing in the distance. Incarcerated people, wearing gray jumpsuits labeled FCSO and bright orange plastic slippers, who are in the halls cleaning or being escorted to another part of the facility, are made to turn and face the wall when reporters or other non-jail staff pass.
Exposed pipes and electrical wiring hang low over the hallway leading from the elevators to the housing area. When you enter the two towers where people are held, the reality of the disparate conditions in which the people in the care of Fulton County live becomes abundantly clear. One or two corrections officers are responsible for supervising dozens of people at a time. Inmates are frequently left alone in their housing units, supervised by officers in the tower who watch them on surveillance cameras.
The problems with the Fulton County Jail have long predated the tenure of current Sheriff Patrick Labat. In his fourth year as the top law enforcement officer in Georgia’s largest county, where more than 30 individuals have died in his custody, residents and elected officials alike are looking to him to solve decades-old issues…