Inmates held at a beleaguered county jail in Georgia have been subjected to unconstitutional, inhumane, and violent conditions that include homicides, stabbings, sexual abuse, pest infestation, and malnourishment, according to an investigation and report by the U.S. Justice Department.
Conditions of confinement at the Fulton County Jail in the Atlanta area violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, authorities said.
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The jail houses 2,000 inmates, who are housed there while awaiting trial and other court hearings. According to the report, 91% of inmates at the jail are Black, and a “significant portion” of the inmate population has “an identified mental illness.”
The jail is where Lashawn Thompson , who was homeless and had schizophrenia, was found dead in his garbage-filled cell in the mental health unit in September 2022, three months after his arrest for spitting at a Georgia Tech police officer. 1He was found slumped over with his head on a toilet. He was malnourished and infested with an “enormous presence of body lice.” The medical examiner concluded he was “neglected to death.”