DOJ Finds ‘Dehumanizing’ Filth and Violence at Atlanta Jail Where Man Died Covered in Bugs

Two years after a mentally ill man died of malnutrition and infestation in Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail, a Department of Justice investigation found that the man’s death was just one in a series of deaths due to widespread unconstitutional conditions at the prison.

Department of Justice Civil Rights Division released a report report The Fulton County Jail, which manages pretrial detention for much of Atlanta, exposed incarcerated people to pest infestations and malnutrition, excessive force by corrections officers and failed to protect them from excessive violence and sexual assaults by other inmates, a ruling concluded Thursday. The report found that these conditions violated the Eighth and 14th Amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Ministry of Justice Launched civil rights investigation Following the death of Lashawn Thompson in 2022. Thompson, a 35-year-old man suffering from schizophrenia, had been incarcerated in the Fulton County Jail for three months on a misdemeanor battery charge when he was found dead in an extremely filthy cell. Thompson’s body was covered in lice, bedbugs and lesions. An independent autopsy listed the cause of death He described Thompson as suffering from a “serious body bug infestation”, calling it “serious negligence”.

in a press expressionAttorney General Merrick Garland said Thompson’s “horrific death is symptomatic of the dangerous and inhumane conditions at the Fulton County Jail.”

“The Department of Justice’s report concluded that Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office permitted unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the jail,” Garland said. “As a result, individuals incarcerated in the Fulton County Jail suffered from pest infestations and malnutrition and were at risk of serious harm from violence perpetrated by other incarcerated individuals, including murders, stabbings, and sexual abuse.”

Justice Department inspectors reported widespread infestations of mice, cockroaches, bedbugs, lice and scabies.

In addition to being unhealthy, the prison’s kitchen does not adequately feed prisoners. Prison medical staff determined in 2022 that 90 percent of people in the mental health unit where Thompson died were “significantly malnourished due to apparent muscle wasting,” the report said.

Because Georgia is one of four states where the juvenile justice system ends at age 16, the Fulton County Jail routinely holds 17-year-olds and subjects them to the same conditions.

Minors and those with mental illness are held in solitary confinement for long periods. Prison officers use stun guns and pepper spray against mentally ill inmates and minors without any justification.

The report also found that although the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) is required to establish zero-tolerance policies for rape in jails and prisons, the prison inadequately investigated and reported allegations of sexual assault. This negligence extends to the prison’s minority population, Justice Department investigators wrote:

Even a complaint about sexual assault against a 17-year-old boy led to no apparent action against the violence. In June 2023, a 17-year-old teenager filed an urgent complaint reporting that her anal area had been raped and that she was bleeding. The complaint officer said he forwarded the complaint to the Jail’s investigation unit, provided no further information and closed the complaint. Later that week, the same person filed another emergency complaint from the same accommodation, reporting that she had been sexually harassed and performed sexual acts, and requested to be moved to another location. The complaint officer said he forwarded the complaint to the PREA investigator, again provided no further information and closed the complaint. Despite our request, we have not received any incident reports or documentation indicating that anyone is investigating these complaints.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D–Ga.), who called on the Justice Department to launch the investigation, said in a press release that Thursday’s report “confirms that abuse at the Fulton County Jail is not only horrific, but unconstitutional.” “The continuation of these conditions is a failure to protect the human and Constitutional rights of Georgians.”

But these conditions persist in jails and prisons across the country, where neglect, indifference and cruelty result in hundreds of deaths a year. Three people in a Texas prison died of thirst over a two-year period.

The Department of Justice report notes that three people have died in the Fulton County Jail so far in 2024: one from a suspected drug overdose, one from a stabbing and one from suicide.