A new lawsuit filed in federal court last month alleges that Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat is failing to create a safe and sanitary environment at a jail in south Fulton.
The lawsuit alleges Labat isn’t giving mentally ill detainees daily time out of their jail cells for the yard, gym and other therapeutic activities. It also claims Labat is not properly documenting which inmates are mentally ill or on suicide watch, among other records, such as tracking if inmates receive out-of-cell offers.
In one incident, a jailer mocked a suicidal schizophrenic woman, the lawsuit claims. In another case, a woman who was hearing voices was repeatedly denied out-of-cell time. On another occasion, jail staff allegedly waited six days before allowing a woman “covered in feces” to clean herself despite her begging the staff to let her shower.
Labat’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit’s findings relate to a federal settlement reached between the South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail in Union City and the detainees’ attorneys — the Georgia Advocacy Office, the Southern Center for Human Rights, and the local Caplan Cobb law firm. Four years ago, those organizations and two detainees filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all mentally ill women held under similar conditions at the jail.
At that time, the lawsuit said the jail’s seriously mentally ill women were held in isolation 23 hours a day. It featured photographs of standing toilet water on the floor, a urine trail under a cell door, bloody clothes in living areas and walls smeared with feces or blood.
U.S. District Judge Billy Ray approved the settlement agreement last year after he called the jail “repulsive.” He ordered Fulton to let women out of their cells four hours a day, five days a week, and to track and report if the inmates accepted or denied the offers. He also required the jail to give inmates access to therapeutic activities, hygiene items, clean water, and a sufficient supply of clean clothes.
The settlement agreement was set to expire two weeks ago on April 4. However, the detainees’ attorneys are now requesting a magistrate hearing to extend the agreement by six months.
“Unfortunately,” the lawsuit said, Labat’s “failure to comply with mandated out-of-cell requirements is causing the very harms the agreement was designed to prevent.”
According to the lawsuit, Labat says the plaintiffs are either mistaken or finding rare exceptions.
Meanwhile, Labat announced Monday night that his chief and assistant chief jailers are resigning. He also said his office is reviewing options for changing medical vendors.
The announcement came a week after the family of a dead detainee called for an investigation into his death. Lashawn Thompson, 35, was found covered in bed bugs after he died last September inside of Fulton’s main jail on Rice Street.
Thompson’s family also called for the closure of the main jail, which is chronically overcrowded. A day later, Labat announced plans to move more than 600 inmates to other counties instead of housing them there.
Labat, meanwhile, is still in the process of transferring 700 county detainees into the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC). At Monday’s City Council meeting, an attorney from the Southern Center told the lawmakers that hundreds of men are still sleeping on the main jail’s floor due to bad staffing, delayed indictments, unaffordable bail and underused diversion programs.
“We warned you all about the harms that were occurring at South Fulton Jail being brought to ACDC,” said attorney Devin Franklin. “I would like for you all to take action … because it’s the right thing to do.”
About the Author
