Andre Dickens is the dynamic, results-oriented young mayor of Atlanta, Georgia’s capital city, after having won election early this year.
Atlanta is the largest of 15 municipalities in Fulton County, stretching nearly 100 miles from the City of South Fulton and Chattahoochee Hills to Milton and Crabapple.
Pat Labatis, an experienced law enforcement leader and veteran, serves as Fulton’s sheriff and chief law enforcement officer.
Among a myriad of other responsibilities of that office, Labat is trying to divine a path to help keep the county safer, while also treating humanely the detainees and occasional state inmates in the care of his office and held in the Fulton County Jail.
On Aug. 1 this year, Dickens and Labat reached an agreement in principle to house up to 700 Fulton Jail detainees, with nearly 400 currently sleeping on the floors of the overcrowded facility, within the largely shuttered, but fully paid-for and operational Atlanta Detention Center, also known as the old Atlanta Jail, just down the street.
Labat had previously served as chief of the City of Atlanta Department of Corrections, running that facility and managing its staff and $30-million budget for more than a decade. We are now close to November, and only a handful of Fulton Detainees have been transferred to the old jail.
Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (2018-22) and the city council of that time closed Atlanta Detention Center, with discussions never fully realized to convert the facility into some sort of center of restorative justice, or more recently the first two floors into a Diversion Center for non-violent offenders.
Another more recent proposal would level the city jail, build a park and memorial, and create an Atlanta Centre for Equity, including an urban farm and seed bank.
But back to Atlanta’s present mayor and county sheriff, trying to deal with the crisis at hand. Labat inherited a troubled and poorly engineered jail, where the detainees can easily pick the locks and security is a constant challenge. The Fulton jail annexes to the north and south of Fulton County are currently closed for unrelated issues, undergoing renovation and repairs and further reducing capacity.
“I am moving into a space where people’s lives are in danger. Since we met last, we had someone openly murdered in our facility,” Sheriff Labat recently shared with Atlanta City Council.
Former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed pointed out during the final mayoral debate of the previous campaign, that there were then more than 600 detainees in the Fulton Jail, who had been arrested and charged more than 25 to 30 times each, who were continually being released back onto city streets to re-offend. Reed suggested simply keeping the bad guys (repeat offenders) locked up, at least while awaiting trial in the City of Atlanta’s now-closed jail.
Bottoms and the city council of her day also largely ended cash bail. Atlanta City Councils since, in one way or another have delayed or blocked the use of the Atlanta jail. Mayor Dickens has made public safety his top priority, opened new police precincts and mini-precincts, and supports the new training center which should help take public safety—police, fire, and EMT services in Atlanta—to the next level.
But when folks break the law, particularly with felony offenses, there needs to be a safe and secure facility to detain them while awaiting trial. There needs to exist a facility that is safe and secure for the inmates, as well as their jailers.
I have no ill will against Atlanta City Council, it has many fine members and longtime public servants, but they are playing with people’s lives while playing politics with the issue of racial justice. Yes, there are detainees that may be better served by diversion, but until those programs are available or better staffed, there are hundreds sleeping on cold floors, the same poor folks, mostly of color, who Council claims to want to later serve in a Centre for Equity.
As the cold of winter approaches, the old saw for some homeless was that time in jail did at least supply three hots (meals) and a cot.
Apparently not in Fulton County, Georgia.
Perhaps until Atlanta City Council can allow logical and more humane options to be exercised, we need an ordinance requiring a work/release program for members of the council, perhaps even requiring a weekend in the Fulton County Jail. A little ice-cold dose of reality might wake up a few folks before it’s too late for many in the jail, as well as those who work there serving and protecting the citizens of Fulton County.