The Fulton County Jail was without power for hours on Friday after severe storms caused an outage at the facility. While power was restored, the building was still without air conditioning over the weekend while temperatures in Atlanta remained close to 90 degrees.
The Rice Street jail lost power Friday afternoon, which wasn’t restored until around 8:20 p.m., according to the Fulton County sheriff’s office. Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat deployed emergency measures, including diverting all available commanders and staff to the facility.
The situation was caused by a backup propane tank damaged by the storm, which officials said, had to be monitored while it vented dangerous gases before the air conditioning system could be restarted in the jail. All the jail’s mechanical equipment had to remain off, including the kitchen.
The jail temporarily stopped accepting new detainees but regular intakes resumed Saturday. During the outage, three inmate medical emergencies were reported and treated, according to the sheriff’s office. Commanders are conducting regular detainee health and safety checks to monitor for heat-related concerns.
The sheriff’s office said there were no heat-related injuries as of Sunday afternoon.
A portable chiller truck was used to cool parts of the building, but officials said air conditioning still hadn’t been restored by Sunday at 2 p.m.
“We are operating under incredibly difficult circumstances right now which are creating uncomfortable conditions for the inmates and staff but our team has mounted an incredible response to keep everyone safe,” Labat said in a statement. “Hot meals were served last night and it’s our hope that (Fulton County’s Department of Real Estate and Asset Management) and Georgia Power will be able to safely restore full power, including air conditioning, soon.”
Devin Franklin, policy counsel with the Southern Center for Human Rights, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that sources inside the jail on Friday reported downed elevators, blaring alarms and high temperatures inside the facility.
The Rice Street facility was designed to hold 1,125 inmates. The AJC reported that the actual occupancy surpassed 3,000 during the pandemic and has remained overcrowded.
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