The day after a contractor repaired 11 cell doors in the Fulton County jail, seven of them had been damaged again and inmates told the contractor they would keep breaking them, the county’s director of facilities told the county sheriff’s office two weeks ago.
Joseph N. Davis, director of the county’s Department of Real Estate and Asset Management, known as DREAM, also wrote in his email that only one sheriff’s office employee was “on the floor” in the section of the jail where the contractor fixed the 11 doors on May 20.
“The contractor advised that upon their arrival yesterday, all cell doors were open allowing residents free access to the locking mechanisms, hinges, etc.,” Davis wrote on May 22. “Contractor indicated that this is typical wherever they are assigned to work on doors.”
Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis read the email aloud during Wednesday’s board meeting to demonstrate how inadequate supervision continues to be within the troubled Rice Street facility.
Two inmates died last week just months after the county reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve deplorable and unsafe conditions there.
Ellis also questioned why Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat has not yet moved to accept extra funding the Board of Commissioners approved one month ago to pay jailer overtime.
“We all share a sense of urgency around this particular topic,” Ellis said.
A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said in a statement Thursday that the resolution providing the funding “is still in draft format with the County Attorney’s Office. Because of the delay in receiving a finalized resolution from the county attorney, no efforts on anyone’s part have taken place.”
The resolution, which provides an extra $1.8 million per quarter for overtime pay for detention employees, came with strings attached.
The resolution brought by Ellis — a frequent and vociferous Labat critic — requires the sheriff to provide the board with a complete roster of its employees with job titles and whether each employee works full-time in detention facilities. The resolution also urges the sheriff’s office to direct more of its resources toward detention work.
The sheriff’s spokesperson added that the resolution requests information from the sheriff’s office that the county human resources department should already have.
“At this time, the Sheriff’s Office is not utilizing the funding identified in the proposed resolution but is using its own funding that does not require the many reports required by the proposed resolution,” the spokesperson’s statement says.
“The discussion regarding the Sheriff’s Office’s failure to provide reports was more unhelpful, divisive, political posturing by Mr. Ellis and flies in the face of the very language of his proposed resolution.”
Ellis fired back in a statement Thursday.
“Excuses get us nowhere. There’s nothing ‘divisive’ about hiring more detention officers. I look forward to seeing the data the Board has requested from the Sheriff so that the money we’ve approved can be used to make the Fulton County Jail safer and more secure.”
After Wednesday’s commission meeting, Commissioner Marvin S. Arrington Jr. said the sheriff believes the resolution “is an attempt to micromanage him, and he is a constitutional officer.”
“It would be nice if he provided that information,” Arrington added, “but I don’t want anyone else at the jail to die because he hasn’t provided it and there’s not enough staff.”
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
Commissioner Dana Barrett agreed that an impasse between Labat and the board could be tying up important funding.
“For whatever reason, he feels like this is something he should not have to provide, and we feel like it is something he should provide,” she said. “But at the end of the day, we need to deal with the staffing issue more importantly than a reporting issue on who’s assigned where.”
In addition to the quarterly overtime money, Ellis’ resolution offers the sheriff’s office $1 million as a one-time infusion this year for activities that foster the hiring and retention of full-time detention staff.
In the email Davis sent the sheriff’s office on May 22, he asked for a “risk incident report” so that DREAM can “minimize impact to the jail maintenance budget.”
“Any assistance the (Sheriff’s Office) can provide to ensure residents are either locked in, or locked out of, their cells would be greatly appreciated,” Davis wrote. “Otherwise, we will continue to have repeat occurrences of this nature as there is no detention lock that cannot be compromised if not properly secured.”
The county has allocated more than $32 million toward maintenance and repairs at the jail since last year.
— AJC reporter Uma Bhat contributed to this story.
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