US Justice Department finds rights violated at Atlanta jail By Reuters

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, the place a mentally ailing man infested with lice died in 2022 from neglect, systematically violates the constitutional rights of the folks it incarcerates, the U.S. Justice Division mentioned on Thursday.

In a report, the division mentioned a civil rights investigation it launched in July 2023 has uncovered widespread issues, from failing to guard inmates from violence and utilizing unjustified power, to failing to supply correct medical care and residing situations.

“Regardless of widespread consciousness of those points, the unconstitutional and unlawful situations have endured. Weak populations— together with kids, those that are homosexual or transgender, folks with medical and psychological well being wants, and others—typically bear the brunt of those situations,” the report says.

The Justice Division beneath the Biden administration has launched quite a lot of civil rights probes, referred to as sample or apply investigations, into jails throughout the US.

The Fulton County Jail garnered headlines in September 2022, after LaShawn Thompson was found lifeless inside an insect-infested cell.

Though his dying made headlines, the Justice Division mentioned its investigation discovered there have been different deaths that by no means made the information.

After Thompson’s dying, three high-ranking members of the native sheriff’s workplace resigned and county officers pledged to treatment a few of the jail’s issues, its report mentioned.

Nonetheless, incarcerated folks have continued to die inside the power.

“In lower than 24 hours in August 2023, not less than seven folks had been stabbed and one was killed on the Jail. The violence spanned 5 models and three flooring,” the Justice Division’s report mentioned.

The report concluded that Fulton County violates the rights of its incarcerated inhabitants with “deliberate indifference” to the dangers of harms.

“We can’t flip a blind eye to the inhumane, violent and unsafe situations that individuals are subjected to contained in the Fulton County Jail,” mentioned Kristen Clarke, the Assistant Legal professional Normal for the Civil Rights Division.

“Detention within the Fulton County Jail has amounted to a dying sentence for dozens of people that have been murdered or who died because of the atrocious situations inside the power.”