Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts is proposing a new facility on the grounds of the troubled Rice Street jail that would house up to 1,800 inmates with medical, mental health or other special needs.
The new building and repairs to the existing jail are expected to cost $1.1 billion. Pitts said most of the money will come from revenues Fulton will receive as its tax allocation districts expire.
The county forgoes property tax revenue in its tax allocation districts. The money is instead invested in development within the districts.
“This plan for the future of the jail prioritizes the needs of detainees who need the most care,” Pitts said Monday at a news conference. “It also mitigates the financial impact to taxpayers compared to building a new jail.”
The County Commission will vote Wednesday on the proposal. Approval would kick off a planning process that includes community engagement. Construction would begin sometime in 2027 and end in 2030, according to county documents.
Through a spokesperson, Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat declined to comment until after Wednesday’s vote.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Fulton County earlier this year entered a federal consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice mandating that the county and its sheriff improve conditions at the jail that federal officials called “abhorrent” and unconstitutional.
A new jail was estimated to cost $1.7 billion in construction. Commissioners narrowly voted last year to reject that plan.
Renovating the current jail would cost $552 million, while the new “special purpose facility” would cost $536 million to build, according to ACR Partners, the county’s project manager for jail improvements.
That is more than three times the $300 million maximum that commissioners approved last year for renovations and a new facility. At the time, they envisioned issuing bonds for that amount.
Anywhere from 40% to 70% of inmates have mental health or substance abuse issues that could land them in the new facility, Pitts said.
If the proposal is approved, Fulton County will have the capacity to house 3,200 inmates in single-bed rooms across both facilities, spokesperson Jessica Corbitt said. The jail on Rice Street has a capacity of about 2,300, but that includes rooms with bunk beds, she said.
The proposed new jail that commissioners rejected last year would have housed more than 4,400 inmates.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Fulton County is continuing efforts to reduce its incarcerated population, including a pre-arrest diversion center, accountability courts, county-subsidized ankle monitors and pre-trial services, Pitts said.
He added Fulton spends $19.5 million per year on mental health programs and last year opened a Behavioral Health Crisis Center.
It is not clear whether Pitts has enough support from the rest of the commission to approve the proposed facility. Commissioner Dana Barrett likened it to building a new, half-jail and said the revenues from the tax allocation districts would not start rolling in until 2030.
“Where’s the money going to come from in that first five years?” she said.
Members of the Community Over Cages Coalition, which has for years criticized Fulton’s management of the jail, said the new facility would not be necessary if the county followed through on its promised alternatives to incarceration.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
The diversion center is not being utilized to its full potential, the advocates noted. Cases are moving slowly through the Fulton court system, keeping people in jail for longer than they should be, they said.
“We are not saying that this county should not maintain the facility that they have,” Devin Barrington-Ward said. “In fact, we’ve been big proponents of that because we feel like that is also what is fiscally responsible. But to state that we need a new facility when we have not fully utilized everything that is in place right now feels irresponsible.”
At the Atlanta City Council meeting Monday, speakers asked the city to begin planning the transition of hundreds Fulton County inmates out of the city’s detention center. The original lease agreement between the city and the county called for the planning process to begin ahead of the lease’s end in December 2026.
“Fulton County’s problems are not being solved because the county refuses to address its failing systems,” said Dominique Grant, campaign and operations manager for Women on the Rise. “More jail beds has never been the answer.”
Staff writer Riley Bunch contributed to this article.
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