Atlanta jail inmate was homeless, mentally ill teen

In the final months leading up to her death inside the Atlanta City Detention Center, Noni Battiste-Kosoko told police she was homeless after being released from a mental health facility, court records show.

She divulged her desperate circumstances on Feb. 1 as Fulton County school police arrested her for allegedly trespassing in her alma mater, Langston Hughes High School in Fairburn. Battiste-Kosoko, 19, according to the records, slept in one of the art classrooms before she allegedly defaced a wall and some tables with paint. The police said Battiste-Kosoko, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was “sluggish, slow-speaking and her motor skills appeared delayed.”

Ultimately, she was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation and charged with trespassing and damaging school property. She did not show up for a hearing on those charges, the court records show, was arrested in Union City on a minor drug charge on April 23 and taken into custody by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. Battiste-Kosoko died in Atlanta’s jail on July 11.

Standing beside a silver and blue urn containing her daughter’s cremated remains, Shashu Battiste told reporters Thursday she was still seeking information about what caused her death.

“She was premature when she came into this world and she left prematurely,” said Battiste, who resides in Florida. “She was a wonderful friend. She was there for you, if you needed her. And I need her now. And since she is not here, I need answers to why my child is gone.”

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On Wednesday, Battiste’s attorneys sent Fulton a legal notice, citing possible claims for negligence against the county and demanding a $10 million settlement.

The Atlanta Police Department, which is investigating her death, referred questions to the Fulton Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office said it was awaiting autopsy results from the Fulton Medical Examiner’s Office, which said its investigation wasn’t complete.

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department announced it had launched a civil rights investigation of conditions in the Fulton County Jail, a separate lockup operated by the Fulton Sheriff’s Office. In announcing its probe, the DOJ cited the Sept. 13 death of a Fulton Jail inmate, Lashawn Thompson, who similarly suffered from homelessness and mental illness. Thompson, whose body was found covered in insects, was among more than 60 Fulton Jail inmates who died between 2009 and October 2022, the highest total for any jail in Georgia during that time, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation.

Fulton Sheriff Patrick Labat said last month he had met with DOJ officials and that he welcomed their investigation.

“I have publicly, privately, and repeatedly raised concerns about the dangerous overcrowding, dilapidated infrastructure and critical staffing shortages at the jail,” he said. “The best possible outcome of the report from the Department of Justice is that it will confirm the findings of the Jail Feasibility Study completed in March of 2023 — that the Rice Street Jail is not viable and a replacement jail is needed.”

Battiste-Kosoko, who enjoyed singing and writing poetry, attended Clifton Elementary School in DeKalb County, where she won a talent show, said her mother. She wanted to go to college, run track and dance.

“She was really great with her younger cousins. They looked up to her a lot,” said her mother.

Credit: Family Photo

Battiste-Kosoko was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and took medication for it, one of her family’s attorneys said.

Union Police records show officers had numerous encounters with her in recent years partly because of alleged family disputes and because she had repeatedly been reported missing. Meanwhile, she was charged with minor offenses, including criminal trespass.

On Jan. 4 of this year, for example, she was arrested at a Walmart in Union City for allegedly shoplifting three pairs of pants and some tea totaling less than $38. On April 23, Union Police arrested her on a minor marijuana possession charge and took her to a jail in East Point.

A month later, she was booked into the Atlanta City Detention Center on a misdemeanor bench warrant, according to the Fulton Sheriff’s Office, which said she had been granted a $2,000 bond but “there was a hold without bond placed on her for charges out of Miami-Dade County, Florida.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has requested records of those charges from Miami-Dade County court and police officials.

Shashu Battiste said she spoke with her daughter by phone while she was being held in Atlanta’s jail.

“I just told her to hang in there and that ‘You are going to get through this process. They are going to bring you back to Miami. You can do this. We will go full steam ahead when you get out,’” she said. “And she kept saying, ‘OK, I love you, Mommy.’”

Her daughter turned 19 behind bars, six days before dying there.