Population study remains in Atlanta, Fulton jail agreement

Atlanta will hold a key provision in its settlement with Fulton County that enables the sheriff to deal with some jail detainees on the Metropolis Detention Middle.

Driving the information: The Council rejected a proposal launched by Council member Michael Julian Bond to not require the Justice Coverage Board to conduct an evaluation of the county’s jail inhabitants earlier than detainees may be transferred to the Middle.

Why it issues: The choice signifies that the county jail will stay overcapacity till the assessment is carried out, regardless of an ACLU report that claims releasing detainees who’ve dedicated low-level offenses would dramatically enhance situations.

Catch up fast: The settlement permits the county to deal with as much as 700 detainees on the 1,300-bed Atlanta Metropolis Detention Middle for not more than 4 years. No renewal choices are included within the settlement.

• It additionally requires the county to pay town $50 per detainee per day. Atlanta would even be entitled to 65% of commissary and telephone charges.

What they’re saying: Bond, whose last-minute request to desk his agenda merchandise failed, mentioned at Monday’s Council assembly that the talk has “turn into combined and muddled by individuals who have a litigious curiosity within the disaster of Fulton County.”

• He mentioned the activists who’ve opposed the settlement haven’t talked in regards to the detainees who should sleep on the ground resulting from overcrowded situations.

The opposite aspect: A number of neighborhood organizations and dozens of neighborhood activists are against the settlement as a result of it’s in distinction to town’s imaginative and prescient to make use of the jail as its Middle for Diversion and Providers.

• Additionally they argued towards eradicating the inhabitants examine provision from the settlement.

Metropolis Council member Liliana Bakhtiari mentioned Atlanta ought to enable the Justice Coverage Board to assessment the jail inhabitants to see if it is just like a report compiled by the ACLU of Georgia.

• That report says the county can enhance situations by releasing 728 detainees who’re both being held as a result of they will’t pay bail, stay unindicted for greater than 90 days, charged with solely misdemeanors or could possibly be diverted to different providers.
• “It’s our due diligence…to do our half to be sure that these information take a look at,” she mentioned. “We don’t must rush to the end line on this one.”

Sure, however: Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts mentioned in an Oct. 6 press launch that the jail is in a state of emergency whereas some Atlanta council members are “ignoring this disaster.”

• “The Atlanta Detention Middle is on the market proper now, so cease stalling,” Pitts mentioned. “Let’s remedy this disaster and put politics apart.”

What we’re watching: Dustin Hillis, chair of the Public Security and Authorized Administration Committee, mentioned the Justice Coverage Board desires to current its findings on the committee’s assembly on Nov. 14.