Georgia sheriff ‘cleans house’ after mentally ill prisoner allegedly eaten alive by bed bugs

A Georgia sheriff has accepted the resignations of three of his high deputies following disturbing allegations {that a} prisoner affected by psychological well being issues was eaten alive by mattress bugs. 

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat mentioned he requested and accepted the resignations of Chief Jailer John Jackson; Assistant Chief Jailer Derrick Singleton; and Lt. Col. Adam Lee, assistant chief jailer for the Felony Investigative Division. 

TEXAS SENATE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES SWEEPING MENTAL HEALTH BILL

“It is clear to me that is time, previous time, to scrub home,” Labat mentioned Monday afternoon.

The announcement comes after the dying of Lashawn Thompson, a 35-year-old homeless man with a historical past of psychological sickness who was discovered sleeping in a park close to a childcare middle in Atlanta final yr. He was arrested and charged with easy battery after allegedly spitting on an officer who then took him to Fulton County Jail. His solely possessions on the time of his arrest included a spoon, a inexperienced cup, and a blue backpack with a dinosaur design.

Three months after Thompson was taken in, he was discovered lifeless within the jail’s psychiatric wing, coated in sores and bites from mattress bugs and lice so extreme that his household couldn’t acknowledge him. Photos from contained in the jail confirmed Thompson being held in a dirty cell with grime and dirt coating the flooring, partitions, and bathroom.

“The jail cell Mr. Thompson was housed in was not match for a diseased animal,” the household’s lawyer, Michael Harper, mentioned. “He didn’t deserve this.”

Harper added that jail data documented Thompson’s deteriorating well being however did nothing to assist him.

“They actually watched his well being decline till he died,” Harper mentioned. “When his physique was discovered, one of many detention officers refused to manage CPR as a result of, in her phrases, she was ‘freaked out.’”

The sheriff’s workplace mentioned two investigations are being launched into Thompson’s dying: one by the Atlanta Police Division and one other inside investigation. The outcomes will likely be given to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for evaluate.

“Most significantly, we need to, as soon as once more, prolong our honest condolences to the household of Mr. Lashawn Thompson,” Labat mentioned. “The ultimate investigative report is not going to ease the household’s grief or deliver their cherished one again, however it’s my hope and expectation that it supplies a full, correct, and clear account of the information surrounding Mr. Thompson’s dying in order that it supplies all the solutions they’re looking for and deserve.”

Whereas he praised the sheriff for “cleansing home,” Harper questioned the timing.

“The sheriff was conscious of Lashawn Thompson’s dying again in September and the situations wherein he died again in September,” Harper advised 11Alive on Monday evening. “So we do need to marvel if the worldwide consideration to this case is what made the sheriff make the adjustments.”

Thompson’s household plans to file a lawsuit towards the sheriff and detention officers if an investigation they commissioned determines Thompson’s dying was as a result of bug bites. The outcomes are anticipated throughout the subsequent two months. Thompson’s household just isn’t solely demanding somebody be held accountable for his dying but in addition that the jail be shut down.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner lists Thompson’s explanation for dying as “undetermined” however did be aware a extreme bedbug infestation.

Individually, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned it will take “fast motion” in updating the dilapidated situations of the jail, together with spending $500,000 to deal with the mattress bug, lice, and different rodent infestation. It has additionally promised so as to add extra workers to the psychological well being unit and switch greater than 600 inmates to different counties to alleviate overcrowding.

Dr. House Venters, a federal court docket monitor for well being providers in jails, mentioned Thompson’s dying underscored the message that mentally in poor health folks “want remedy, not jail.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“Once they get into jail, they really are additional faraway from the psychiatric care that they want,” Venters advised the Atlanta Journal-Structure. “By some means the framing that an individual has a psychological well being drawback in a jail implies that they’re typically simply locked in a cell. And never solely are they disadvantaged of the fundamental psychiatric care they want, in addition they could also be disadvantaged of the medical care they want.”

Members of Thompson’s household and different supporters are planning a rally on the jail on Thursday.