Georgia
Georgia sheriff laments scrapped jail plans in county under federal civil rights investigation
ATLANTA — The sheriff in a Georgia county where prison conditions have led to a federal civil rights investigation criticized a decision not to move forward with plans for a new jail, calling the vote “shortsighted” on Friday.
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday voted 4-3 to approve a request for proposals to assess jail facilities, recommend renovations and provide an estimate for a future special purpose building. The U.S. Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation last year over longstanding problems with jail conditions in the county.
“This project is really putting a Band-Aid on open-heart surgery,” Sheriff Pat Labat, who has pushed aggressively for a new jail, told reporters Friday.
County commissioners in May voted to end a search for a project manager to oversee the building of a new jail at an estimated cost of $1.7 billion, news outlets reported. State legislators had said they wouldn’t allow a new local sales tax to fund the project and commissioners were unwilling to increase property tax rates.
The maximum allowable budget for the new project is $300 million.
Labat has long complained about dangerous conditions at the jail, including overcrowding, crumbling infrastructure and critical staffing shortages. He maintains that the only solution is to build a new jail that is more in line with modern corrections practices. In addition to being a safer and more humane jail it would also be more cost effective, the sheriff said.
“The county is responsible for the maintenance of this facility while we oversee it,” Labat said. “Ultimately, the county funds the actual maintenance and what it looks like is $300,000 a month. We’ve had since May of last year nearly 15,000 work orders just for this building alone. The building, the infrastructure itself is out of date.”
Attorney Michael Harper holds a photo of Lashawn Thompson’s cell in the Fulton County, Ga., Jail at a news conference, May 22, 2023, at the state Capital in Atlanta. Thompson died in the bedbug-infested cell in the county jail’s psychiatric wing in 2023. The Fulton County Sheriff said Friday, July 12, 2024, that a decision this week not to move forward with plans to build a new jail is short sighted. Credit: AP/Christina Matacotta
Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. could not support the new jail plan, he said during Wednesday’s meeting.
“I believe we need a new facility,” he said. “The facility is crumbling apart, and I believe this is the wrong direction.”
Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman said she had been one of the biggest proponents of a new jail but that the reality had sunk in that “we do not have public support” for it, she said. She did vote for the renovation plan.
“To do nothing is to continue to tell the public that we will not make the hard decisions when we need to make them,” she said.
Some commissioners said they are working under uncertainty since the Department of Justice has yet to issue any findings from its investigation.
When the Justice Department began investigating, it cited violence, filthy conditions and the September 2022 death of Lashawn Thompson, one of dozens of people who has died in county custody during the past few years. Thompson, 35, died in a bedbug-infested cell in the jail’s psychiatric wing.
Last August, former President Donald Trump went to the Fulton County Jail to be booked and to sit for the first-ever mug shot of a former president after he was indicted on charges related to efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Civil rights groups and advocates for people held in jails and prisons applauded the county’s new direction on the jail.
“We’re elated to hear the news that the $2B jail will be scrapped. This was a long fight with local advocates demanding their voices to be heard,” said Michael Collins, senior policy director at Color of Change. “For far too long, those in power have disregarded the will of the people. Today, that has been rectified.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia also applauded the decision.
“We reiterate that the wholesale warehousing of people pre-trial is expensive and does not make our communities safer,” executive director Andrea Young said. “There are better solutions and we will continue to advocate for more effective approaches to safe communities.”
THE FLATS – Two generous, anonymous families have each given $10 million gifts to support Georgia Tech athletics’ Full Steam Ahead initiative and the Yellow Jackets’ football program, Tech vice president and director of athletics Ryan Alpert has announced.
“We’re incredibly grateful to these two generous families for their investments in Georgia Tech athletics and a championship-level football program,” Alpert said. “Led by these families, their relentless investments in our mission and their belief in our upward trajectory, support of Georgia Tech athletics and Tech football are at unprecedented levels.”
With these transformative gifts, Georgia Tech athletics is well on to set a new fundraising record in the 2026 fiscal year, as donor participation is up 21% in just six months since the fiscal year began on July 1.
Additionally, in just 14 months since the public launch of Full Steam Ahead in October 2024, Tech athletics has received nearly $90 million in new commitments to the initiative. In total, nearly $400 million has been raised towards Full Steam Ahead’s $500 million goal, which is a part of the Institute-wide Transforming Tomorrow campaign.
Georgia Tech continues to display its commitment to fielding nationally prominent, championship-level athletics programs. Notably, Tech athletics has committed to making more than $150 million in investments to its football program over the next several years, which includes the opening of the Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center in the spring (a state-of-the-art facility that will benefit Georgia Tech’s full body of 300-plus student-athletes), a renovation of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field that will be completed prior to the 2027 season, a continued pledge to provide maximum revenue sharing to student-athletes and significant new resources devoted to expand and enhance staff.
To fulfill these commitments, enhanced engagement and support from the Georgia Tech community is vital.
“We still have progress to make to achieve our goal of consistently competing for championships at the highest levels of intercollegiate athletics,” Alpert continued. “Never in the history of college athletics has success been so closely tied to resources, and now is the time to seize the opportunity to take advantage of the great momentum and energy that we’re experiencing on The Flats.
“Every member of the White and Gold community can play a part. We urge fans to get in the game. Whether it be through gifts to the A-T Fund, purchasing tickets and merchandise, corporate sponsorships – every manner of support is vital to the success of Tech athletics.”
For more information and to make a year-end gift to the A-T Fund, visit atfund.org.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
Fourth Quarter
Less than two weeks remain for the Georgia Tech community to take advantage of the A-T Fund’s year-end Fourth Quarter Initiative, which gives supporters the opportunity to receive four A-T Fund priority points for every $100 donated to the Athletic Scholarship Fund through Dec. 31. The Athletic Scholarship Fund provides direct support for student-athletic scholarships and is one of the A-T Fund’s highest annual priorities, as it helps bridge the gap between endowment returns and scholarship costs.
Fourth Quarter gifts to the Athletic Scholarship Fund will provide donors with four A-T Fund priority points per $100 donated, which is double the two points normally allotted per $100 given. A-T Fund priority points are used to allocate benefits such as seat locations and parking for Georgia Tech athletics home events, as well as access to tickets for away games and postseason events, including ACC and NCAA Championships, bowl games and the College Football Playoff. To contribute to the Fourth Quarter Initiative and begin collecting four A-T Fund priority points for every $100 donated, click HERE. For more information, visit atfund.org/4th-quarter.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram and at www.ramblinwreck.com.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies before a Georgia State Senate committee in Atlanta as she ends her year-long legal fight over a subpoena and defends her actions in the Trump election interference case.
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A day after receiving ACC honors, Tech’s senior quarterback refocuses on BYU and the bowl game.
Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King (center) and his family react during a senior night event prior to his final home game Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, against Pittsburgh at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin AJC)
As Haynes King’s time in Atlanta and as a member of the Georgia Tech football program wanes, the inimitable quarterback is soaking in the last few days with teammates while basking in the glow of winning a pair of individual ACC awards.
King was presented two trophies Tuesday — one for being named the ACC player of the year and the other for being named the ACC offensive player of the year — during halftime of Tech’s basketball win over Marist at McCamish Pavilion. The senior was joined by Tech coach Brent Key, Tech athletic director Ryan Alpert, Tech President Angel Cabrera and the ACC’s senior vice president for football, Michael Strickland.
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Chad Bishop is a Georgia Tech sports reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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