Georgia officials violated the rights of people in an overcrowded jail plagued by killings and inhumane conditions, according to a scathing Justice Department report released Thursday.
The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into conditions at Fulton County Jail nearly a year after the body of a malnourished man covered in lice was found in a filthy cell in the jail’s mental health unit. The medical examiner later concluded LaShawn Thompson, 35, had been “neglected to death.” Following Thompson’s death in September 2022, 10 other Black men – including four with serious mental health needs – died in the jail and several other people were assaulted and stabbed when the jail “erupted in violence,” according to the 105-page report.
