The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After hours of public comment, City Council puts off jail vote
At issue is whether to relieve county’s crowded facility.
It will be at least two more weeks before the Atlanta City Council takes a vote on a measure that would create a joint task force to address overcrowding at the Fulton County jail and consider whether Atlanta’s detention center should hold county inmates.
Just before 10 p.m. Monday, following six hours of public comment on the issue, the council voted 11-3 to table the resolution.
The proposal, which is sponsored by Councilman Michael Julian Bond and could be reconsidered during the council’s next meeting on May 3, would create a city-county task force to develop a plan to mitigate overcrowding at Fulton’s jail. That could include selling or leasing the mostly empty Atlanta City Detention Center to the county, the resolution states. The hours of comments from the public came in from residents both for and against the idea.
Residents like Megan Jennings called for the creation of a community center at the site on Peachtree Street where the city jail sits.
“That is the only way Atlanta is going to move forward as a city that can be a safe space for all citizens,” Jennings said.
Supporters of the task force said it would help new Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat address overcrowding at the county jail amid a rise in violent crime.
“The crime in our area, in Atlanta in general, is completely out of control. We do not feel safe living here,” resident Melissa Wagner said.
After his resolution was tabled, Bond said he was “very distressed” by the move.
The proposal is opposed by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and local activists pushing for the closure of the city’s mostly empty detention center. Bottoms, who has advocated closing the city jail since last year, is backing another resolution that would shut down the jail within 15 months. That measure will likely be discussed during a public safety committee meeting next week.
The Atlanta-fulton County group would be Atlanta’s second jail-related task force in the past few years. In May 2019, the city convened a 52-member task force to study how to best repurpose its jail; the council overwhelmingly supported its formation. A year later, it released a report that recommended Atlanta’s jail be demolished and replaced with a community center focused on equity.
The city’s jail has about 1,300 beds but only a few dozen inmates stay there each night. Bond argues that Atlanta should do what it can to alleviate overcrowding concerns at the county jail on Rice Street, including allowing Fulton to use the city’s detention center.
Last week, the CEOS of three business and community nonprofits — Central Atlanta Progress, the Midtown
Alliance and the Buckhead Coalition — sent a letter to members of the council expressing their support for creation of the joint task force.
Bottoms replied to the nonprofit leaders and said she was disheartened to learn about their letter, which she said was “based on misinformation about the real challenges, solutions and ongoing efforts to improve our criminal justice system.”
The mayor said the city is open to working with Fulton to utilize the Atlanta detention center for diversion, reentry and other services, which could help address overcrowding.
“We continue to be open to partnership and collaboration, but we will not compromise on our commitment to end mass incarceration and systems of oppression in our great city,” Bottoms wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-constitution.