Subcommittee to also focus on DA Fani Willis in jail investigation

A new Georgia Senate subcommittee will investigate dangerous conditions at the Fulton County Jail, where 10 inmates have died so far this year. Hearings begin as early as November. The subcommittee is also expected to focus some of its attention on Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis, whom some Senate Republicans seek to punish after she launched an election interference investigation that led to an indictment against Donald Trump and 18 others.

Willis will likely face scrutiny over her use of resources and strategy in addressing an enormous backlog of cases that grew worse during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The DA is required by Georgia law to have a grand jury inspect the sanitary condition of the jail and the treatment of inmates, and it isn’t clear she’s carried out that duty,” said state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, one of the chamber’s top Republicans. “She did find time and resources to pursue politically chosen cases when the jail has been deteriorating, resulting in deaths.”

But officials say Willis won’t be the sole subject of the investigation.

“We don’t know the root cause of the challenges, so anything would be premature at this point. We will follow the facts,” said state Sen. John Albers, who will head the subcommittee with state Sen. Randy Robertson. “This issue is the conditions and deaths at the jail.” The jail’s troubles have been many. More than 60 people who were held at the jail or other facilities operated or leased by Fulton County have died since 2009, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation.

The U.S. Justice Department is also investigating conditions inside the jail, citing the Sept. 13 death of a homeless and mentally ill man in the lockup’s psychiatric wing.

Fulton Sheriff Pat Labat has called the jail’s conditions a “humanitarian crisis.” He’s talked about inmates using crumbling walls to make weapons and cited “long-standing, dangerous overcrowding” in demonstrating a need for a replacement facility.

The county has tentatively approved a new 4,500-bed jail at an estimated cost of roughly $1.7 billion.