ATLANTA – Jail officials in Georgia’s most populous county are violating the constitutional rights of detainees by failing to protect them from violence, using excessive force and keeping them in dirty and unsafe conditions, and are threatening to involve the courts, U.S. Justice Department officials said Thursday. If corrective action is not taken quickly.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office failed to adequately protect jail inmates from violence, including stabbings, sexual abuse and murder, by other detainees, federal officials allege in a lengthy report detailing alleged abuses. Vulnerable groups, including gay, transgender, young people or people with serious mental illness, are particularly at risk from violence that causes physical injuries and long-term trauma, the report says.

“Our investigation reveals long-standing, unconstitutional, illegal and dangerous conditions that endangered the lives and well-being of people held there,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said at a news conference.

The report resulted from a federal investigation Released in July 2023 Examining living conditions, access to medical and mental health care, use of excessive force by staff, and conditions that could lead to violence among people held in jails in the county, which includes most of Atlanta.

Investigators note death in September 2022 Lashawn ThompsonThe 35-year-old was in a bedbug-infested cell in the psychiatric wing of the Fulton County Jail. independent autopsy In the examination carried out upon the request of his family, it was determined that he died due to gross negligence. Photos released by lawyers on behalf of Thompson’s family showed his body was covered in insects and his cell was dirty and full of garbage.

“We cannot ignore the inhumane, violent and dangerous conditions that people are subjected to at the Fulton County Jail,” said Clarke. “Incarceration in the Fulton County Jail is a death sentence for dozens of people who have been killed or died as a result of the horrific conditions inside the facility.”

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat, who took office in 2021 and was re-elected last week, has consistently voiced concerns about overcrowding, dilapidated infrastructure and staffing shortages in the county’s jails. He forced county leaders to build a new jail. I didn’t want to do it until now. He said he welcomed the federal investigation and was prepared to cooperate fully when it began.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the report’s findings.

The report says jail officers have a “habit or practice” of using excessive force against people in county custody, which violates detainees’ constitutional rights. It states that they did not receive adequate training and guidance on the use of force, that they used stun guns too frequently and in an “unreasonable and unsafe manner”, and that staff who used excessive force were not regularly disciplined.

Inspectors also found the main Fulton County Jail building to be dangerous and unsanitary, with flooding from broken toilets and sinks, cockroach and rodent infestations, and dirty cells with dangerously exposed wires. The report states that there is not enough food for detainees and that distribution services are unhealthy. Investigators allege this exposed detainees to pest infestations, malnutrition and other harms.

The report states that people detained in Fulton County receive inadequate medical and mental health care that violates their constitutional rights, leaving them at risk of injury, serious illness, pain and suffering, mental health impairment and death.

People with serious mental illness and juvenile offenders are routinely held in restrictive housing that puts them at risk of serious harm, including self-harm, physical decline and acute mental illness, the report says. It is stated that these practices discriminate against people with mental health problems, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The report includes 11 pages of “minimum remedial measures” that prison officials must implement. The report concludes with a warning that federal authorities will likely take legal action if concerns are not adequately addressed. It is stated that the Attorney General may file a lawsuit within 49 days to correct the problems and may also intervene in relevant existing private cases within 15 days.