GA - Lashawn Thompson, 35, dies of negligence and horrific abuse while in jail awaiting trial on misdemeanor charge, Fulton Co., 14 Apr 2023

[vls12345]

Cyberattack on Fulton County is slowing down a lot of court processes, possibly leading to people being held longer, missing filing dates, etc.

'Clients are terrified and scared' | Attorneys raise concerns over Fulton County cybersecurity incident

A cybersecurity incident prompted 'widespread system outages' in Fulton County. Attorneys fear it could impact court cases for years to come.

www.11alive.com

Criminal defense attorney Joshua Schiffer is 'frightened' about the future of his Fulton County cases because a cybersecurity incident is making it difficult things done in a court that's already the busiest in the state.

"Holding back on disposition of a few cases now and a few cases tomorrow, that creates bigger calendars in the future, calendars in the future that were already big," he said. "We can't do our jobs. Neither can the courts... when we slow down a system as large as ours, the effects just reverberate through the rest of the system."

He said he is concerned there weren't more redundancies in place to begin with.

"We are stuck in quicksand because of our immense reliance on the automated paperless system that's been developed, ostensibly to increase systemwide efficiencies," he said. "When we can't represent our clients by making requests, the state can't respond to them. That grinds our entire system to a halt."

He said his clients are worried, too. They're struggling to look up cases and information online.

"Clients are terrified and scared. The criminal justice system is already deeply intimidating, and now they're being told by everyone [that] it's a little bit more broken and slower than normal," Schiffer said. "That's a really frightening thing when you're talking about someone locked up in Fulton County Jail — a jail that has a troubled history of working in the best of times."

 

[vls12345]

'Call the National Guard' | Demonstrators say Georgia prisons are in crisis

A group rallied outside the Georgia State Capitol building Wednesday, calling for reform inside the state corrections system.

www.11alive.com

 

[vls12345]

'The Fulton County Jail is in crisis': Sheriff after inmate stabbed, killed

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat said Leonard Fortner was stabbed with a piece of metal fashioned into a knife,

www.11alive.com

 

[vls12345]

'The Fulton County Jail is in crisis': Sheriff after inmate stabbed, killed

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat said Leonard Fortner was stabbed with a piece of metal fashioned into a knife,

www.11alive.com

 

[vls12345]

Fulton Sheriff says jail ‘is in crisis,’ urges commission to give him help after inmate stabbing

Sheriff Pat Labat said the knife that was used in the stabbing was manmade using scrap metal from around the jail.

www.wsbtv.com

 

[vls12345]

20-year-old murder suspect found dead inside Fulton County Jail

For the second time in less than a week, an inmate has been found dead at Fulton County Jail.

www.wsbtv.com

 

[Charlot123]

'Purgatory' | Hundreds of unconvicted defendants spend months in Fulton jail system awaiting formal charges

A prominent Atlanta attorney says without an indictment, inmates have few legal options to present their defense.

www.11alive.com

Patrick Labat needs to leave. JMO.

 

[PrairieWind]

'Purgatory' | Hundreds of unconvicted defendants spend months in Fulton jail system awaiting formal charges

A prominent Atlanta attorney says without an indictment, inmates have few legal options to present their defense.

www.11alive.com

Patrick Labat needs to leave. JMO.

I would agree. But he isn't the only one. He has been vocal about the conditions and some of the reasons. And no one seems to be stepping up: the County Commissioners, the District Attorney, local judges. There are a lot of people dropping the ball here.

 

[vls12345]

Fulton Co. Jail inmate suffers serious injuries after falling through stairs in housing unit

“The Fulton County Jail is in crisis, and it has been for decades,” Labat said.

www.wsbtv.com

 

[vls12345]

Sweeping assessment by GA officials will take a hard look at state’s prison system

Channel 2 Action News has learned of a sweeping plan to find out what is working and not working in Georgia’s prison system.

www.wsbtv.com

 

[Charlot123]

I would agree. But he isn't the only one. He has been vocal about the conditions and some of the reasons. And no one seems to be stepping up: the County Commissioners, the District Attorney, local judges. There are a lot of people dropping the ball here.

Sorry, but it is about the money.

I never thought I would post it.

If the murderer of Laken Riley, an illegal criminal, was receiving $$ to live in the US, and then, we can’t find the money to help improve the jail conditions of our own petty criminals who are mentally ill, what’s there to say?

Labat simply has to go. The jail was under his observation.

 

[vls12345]

Security guards walk out of Fulton County Jail after contract company says it hasn’t been paid

Because of the non-payment, contracted security guards were told to leave the Fulton County Jail.

www.wsbtv.com

A contracted security company that works at the Fulton County Jail has terminated its security services at the Fulton County Jail over non-payment.

and

“This action is taken with a heavy heart, as it creates a potential officer safety issue and crisis at the facility,” the company said in its news release. “The continued non-payment has left us with no choice but to take this difficult step to protect the interests of our company and our employees.”

 

[PrairieWind]

Security guards walk out of Fulton County Jail after contract company says it hasn’t been paid

Because of the non-payment, contracted security guards were told to leave the Fulton County Jail.

www.wsbtv.com

and

Yikes. Has the Sheriff responded yet? Not sure how this is going to play out.

 

[vls12345]

Fulton Co. Board votes against giving sheriff’s office money to pay outstanding invoices

The commission members also asked why Sheriff Pat Labat himself did not come to ask for funding, if it was for a noted emergency.

www.wsbtv.com

 

[PrairieWind]

I can't help think that a massive audit of the Fulton Sheriff and maybe Fulton County government as a whole is warranted.

 

[vls12345]

'Horrific and inhumane' | Federal report says Georgia prison system failures violate Eighth Amendment against cruel & unusual punishment

Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general leading the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division called the conditions inside Georgia's system "horrific."

www.11alive.com

A federal report issued Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice says Georgia's prison system fundamentally fails to protect incarcerated people from violence and sexual harm in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

"The state is deliberately indifferent to these unsafe conditions," the report states. "The constitutional violations are exacerbated by serious deficiencies in staffing and supervision, physical condition and security of the facilities, classification and housing, management of gangs and other security threat groups, control of weapons and other contraband, and incident reporting, response, and investigations. The State has known about the unsafe conditions for years and has failed to take reasonable measures to address them."

 

[vls12345]

Inmates at all of Georgia’s state prisons may have had their civil rights violated, DOJ says

The DOJ's report says more than 50,000 incarcerated Georgians are being affected.

www.wsbtv.com

An eight-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice has uncovered crisis-level conditions in all 34 of Georgia’s state prisons. The investigation revealed understaffing and inhumane conditions throughout the prison system.

Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes learned that the Justice Department found that every one of Georgia’s state prisons is failing to protect the inmates.