Key points:
•Fulton County leaders face challenges in addressing unconstitutional conditions at the Rice Street jail amid staffing shortages and violence.
• A recent report suggests staffing increases or a population cap are necessary for safe jail conditions.
• While Fulton County Chair Robb Pitts supports a new mental health facility, Sheriff Pat Labat advocates for a completely new jail, citing ongoing issues.
Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts and Sheriff Pat Labat disagree on how to resolve the unconstitutional conditions at the Rice Street jail, legally required by an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. However, they are working together.
In February, the court-appointed consent decree monitor, Kathleen Kenney, reported that Rice Street’s inmate levels are not sustainable given existing staffing shortages, warning that a court-mandated population cap may be necessary to maintain safe conditions.
Since 2021, more than 30 people have died in custody at Fulton County’s main jail. Violence against inmates and detention officers, burst pipes, and fires have continually plagued the county’s main jail.
County touts compliance
Fulton County and its sheriff’s office entered into the consent decree in January 2025, requiring the county to protect inmates from violence and house them in sanitary conditions. The February report, filed in U.S. District Court, says the county cannot maintain compliance unless it increases staffing or decreases the jail population.
The report recommends a five-member team to ensure cooperation between the sheriff’s office and the county government. The federal monitor said remaining issues include gang activity, inadequate staff training, and a lack of inmate supervision.
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners, led by Pitts, funds the annual budget of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, run by Labat, as well as any capital repairs and new construction.
“My objective is to make the required improvements at the jail based on what we believe needs to be done at the jail and what the federal monitor believes needs to be done,” Pitts said. “I think that we’re making considerable progress in a very short period of time.”
In 2025, Fulton County spent $12.8 million on improvements required in the consent decree, including security, staffing, facilities updates, and detainee healthcare. The 2026 operating budget includes more than $50 million for concerns outlined by the federal monitor, including $16.7 million specifically for jail staffing and recruitment incentives.
Major accomplishments in the last 12 months include completing 90 percent of the “blitz” updates to inmate housing units, replacing fire alarms and other major systems, signing an enhanced inmate healthcare contract, and funding overtime.
Chair backs special facility
The county’s Feb. 20 release cites progress in addressing issues identified in the consent decree, painting a rosier picture than the consent decree monitor’s recent report.
Last fall, the county commission approved a nine-year plan to build a 1,800-bed medical and mental health facility on the Rice Street property and then renovate the existing jail. A year earlier, commissioners voted to scrap a plan to build a more than $2 billion replacement jail that would have expanded detention capacity.
Pitts said the new $1.1 billion commission-approved plan to construct the special-purpose facility will allow the treatment of detainees with substance abuse and mental health problems, around half of the current population of the Rice Street jail.
“In the meantime, we’re making improvements throughout that jail,” Pitts said. “It’s noteworthy that the monitor has not mentioned a new jail at all. And I’ve said from day one, I never supported building a new ‘country club’ jail because we have limited resources.”
Instead of constructing a 4,000-bed jail, Pitts said he prefers to address the healthcare desert in South Fulton.
“If I have to choose between building a hospital in south Fulton County and spending more than $2 billion on a new country club prison, well, I’m going to vote for the hospital every day of the week,” Pitts said.
The county’s announcement celebrates a $100 million increase to the budget for jail-related costs and the sheriff’s office over five years ($132.6 million to $233.7 million).
Sheriff wants a new jail
Sheriff Pat Labat, elected in 2024 to a second four-year term, said he thinks there needs to be more funding for the criminal justice system across the board. Rough Draft spoke with Labat about the ongoing consent decree on Feb. 24.
In the past, he has advocated for an entirely new jail. Labat said the $233.7 million figure cited by the chair includes tens of millions that his agency won’t see directly.
“There are opportunities there for us to get some things fixed,” Labat said. “But as I have said quite often, that’s like putting lipstick on a pig … We’ve been trying to repair that building for 15-20 years, if not longer, and that’s just a fact. So ultimately, we have to do something.”
Labat said he thinks the county is moving in the right direction with plans to build the medical facility, but wants more funding to incentivize detention officers. The federal monitor’s February report cited a 10 percent decline in the number of detention officers from 2024-25.
“We just graduated our first and second largest classes of detention officers and deputies [totaling 41],” Labat said. “We need to look at our actual pay rate, pay scales, bonuses, incentives … the same thing that the Atlanta Police Department has done.”
Last May, commissioners applied oversight measures on additional funding for overtime pay, which Labat criticized. He said there is an opportunity to move past the “criminal justice failure,” and asked commissioners for more funding to improve employee benefits.
Diverting inmates from jail
Labat said he fully supports all diversionary programs, but the number of people booked on low-level offenses is minimal.
“Of the Rice Street jail’s 3,000 daily inmates, only 150 to 170 people are booked on misdemeanors, and the rest are charged with felony crimes,” Labat said. “Most of those misdemeanors are mental health situations or domestic, so it is not as prevalent as it seems that we can divert a lot of cases.”
The Sandy Springs Police Department, like agencies in many other Fulton County communities, transports arrestees charged with felonies to the Rice Street jail and those with misdemeanors to other facilities.
Labat said the Center for Diversion and Services within the Atlanta City Detention Center is not fully funded 24 hours a day, limiting when officers from around the county can divert low-level offenders.
“We want to divert as many cases as we can,” Labat said. “But when you talk about having 370 people charged with murder, another 1,100 people charged with aggravated assault, those cases are a little more difficult.”
Managing Rice Street population
The ACLU of Georgia, Black Futurists Group, and other community leaders argue that meeting the diversion center’s capacity of 40 people per day would help dramatically reduce pressure on the jail system and save millions of taxpayer dollars.
In a January report, the ACLU of Georgia found the percentage of inmates being held solely on misdemeanor charges increased from 3 percent in 2023 to more than 17 percent in 2025.
While the sheriff’s account of the jail population differs from the ACLU’s report, both agree that the diversion center is operating far below its daily capacity of 40 people.
Pitts said county leaders are continuing to work with police departments to increase daily diversions.
“If you extrapolate that on an annual basis, that would be about 14,000 people who will be diverted from the jail,” Pitts said. “We’re using ankle monitors to reduce the overcrowding … We’re going to be ramping that up again as well to reduce the jail overcrowding.”