Fulton backsliding on jail reforms

Inmates are regularly sleeping on floors again, another of Shoob’s sore points. Adger said 290 men slept on the ground Wednesday night. While most slept in plastic crates, approximately 25 were on mattresses laid on the floor.

Two years ago, the judge threatened to lock up commissioners after learning that more than 3,000 inmates had slept on floors over the previous spring.

The Southern Center for Human Rights, which filed a lawsuit on inmates’ behalf that led to a 2006 federal consent order, has begun the process of seeking contempt charges against the sheriff and county commissioners, center attorney Melanie Velez said.

Complying with the order is costing county taxpayers almost $150 million, including interest on loans that funded extensive renovations and more than $53 million spent renting beds in other jails in order to stay below the inmate cap. In June the commission awarded a $4.8 million contract to replace almost 1,400 faulty door locks that inmates have been able to pry open at will, leading to assaults on guards and other inmates.

Commissioner Robb Pitts said he wasn’t aware the jail population had gone over the cap. He said jail officials informed him that overflow inmates were being kept at the DeKalb County jail at no cost and he feels deceived.

“We’re almost like a rudderless ship now, at the jail and the county,” Pitts said.

Adger said he is in talks with his counterparts at the Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas and Gwinnett jails, hoping they can hold extra inmates for no cost. He said he’s not sure they will come up with enough spare beds to get Fulton’s jail below 2,500 inmates.

The problem, Adger said, is that the Commission cut funding earlier this year for paying other jurisdictions to hold their inmates. The overcrowding continues despite Fulton sending 218 female inmates to the Union City jail.

Adding to the problem, the lock replacement process requires entire pods of the facility to be emptied and inmates shuffled around while work is completed.

The contractor on Thursday finished installing locks on 102 cells on the fifth floor, assuring one pod can securely be locked down.

For at least a decade, the facility has been unable to perform this most basic incarceration function. Inmates have jammed locks with soap, toilet paper, shards of cloth or other trash and leave their cells at will.

Several inmates cursed and protested as deputies moved them back into the pod Thursday.

“Their ability to move around is over,” Adger said. “As far as they’re concerned, they’re actually in jail now.”