The conditions in the Fulton County Georgia Jail are "poor and disgraceful . . . violent . . . the building is falling apart . . . worse than you can imagine.”
Those are exact quotes from President Donald Trump, as he reflected on his visit to the facility while being processed on seemingly contrived criminal charges by disgraced Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Very recently, a Fulton County Deputy was stabbed in the neck in that county jail, and last week, six months after the president’s visit, there was another stark reminder of just how horrendous the conditions with the news of the suicide of an inmate, the eighth in four years.
Why?
Because the Fulton County board of commissioners, and Fulton County district attorney's office have failed, and continue to fail, their constituents.
Comprising that failure are millions of dollars in wasteful spending, people sitting in jail for years pending trial, failure to provide inmates with appropriate medical care, and the most minimum standard of safety and security required in an incarceration facility.
While Sheriff Patrick Labat, an elected official, is responsible for overseeing the jail and ensuring a safe environment for both staff and inmates, the board of county commissioners are responsible for adequately funding the Sheriff’s Department.
Their failure to do so, jeopardizes inmates and staff alike.
Instead of prioritizing the construction of a new, modern facility, they’ve chosen to make half-hearted repairs to a building that is literally falling apart while continually cutting the sheriff’s office budget for staff, training, routine maintenance, and more.
In the past two years, there have been 18 in-custody deaths, with three of the last four being suicides, not to mention numerous other suicide attempts.
An overwhelmingly majority of the current inmate population is suffering from mental illness, and they are not receiving the care they need.
As a result, the population has also grown more violent.
Not very long ago, an inmate was sentenced to 40 years for attacking and stabbing an officer inside the jail in 2022.
This officer was out of work for more than a year.
There were a total of 85 inmate attacks on staff, in 2024 alone.
In 2024, there were 464 inmate-on-inmate assaults, 62 of which were stabbings, with 1,023 shanks (the straight portions of an object) recovered.
In these instances, the shanks were primarily parts of the decaying building fashioned into weapons.
The federal government recently intervened with the appointment of a federal monitor, another heavy cost to the Fulton County taxpayer — one that would have been completely unnecessary had the board of commissioners done their job in the first place.
From 1995 to 2000, this writer ran Rikers Island and was able to eliminate more than 100 consent decrees through compliance, and transform the New York City Department of Correction from the largest and most violent jail system in the nation, to a global model for efficiency, accountability, safety, and security.
I could not have done so without then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani giving me the funding and resources I needed to do the job.
And that's the problem here.
Not only is the Fulton County Georgia Board of Commissioners oblivious about jail management or detention, they have no care or concern for the officers and inmates behind those gates.
Their refusal to properly fund the facility has led to an extremely dangerous and inhumane environment for both inmates and staff.
How many more inmates must die?
How many more staff members need to get hurt?
Officers are leaving the sheriff’s office in droves to go to other agencies because they're underpaid, don’t feel safe, and know that Fulton County government could care less about they and their families.
The sooner the Department of Justice (DOJ) and federal courts order Fulton County to provide needed funds for a secure and modern facility, the sooner taxpayers in that region of the Peachtree State will stop wasting money on ineffective contracts, monitors, and lawsuits.
The people behind those gates and walls will then be safer — as required by law.
Bernard B. Kerik was the 40th Police Commissioner of the New York City Police Department and is a New York Times bestselling author. Read Bernard Kerik's Reports — More Here.