For Immediate Release: August 22, 2024
Contact: media@colorofchange.org

 

COLOR OF CHANGE EXPRESSES DISAPPOINTMENT AT SENATE REPORT ON FULTON COUNTY JAIL

FULTON COUNTY – Today, the Georgia Senate Committee on Public Safety Chairman Sen. John Albers and Majority Whip Randy Robertson held a press conference to release the final report of the Senate Subcommittee on the Fulton County Jail to the public. The report contained a series of findings and recommendations that will do very little to address real concerns at the Jail.

“This report is largely a waste of time. It contains recommendations to do things that are already happening, and contradicts itself by praising policies that would reduce the jail population while also pushing the city or Atlanta to transfer a new facility to the County. We already know from the Prison Policy Institute that the case for a new $2B jail is bogus. We need to reduce the jail population, and we can do that safely and humanely by increasing diversion opportunities, and improving prosecutorial practices,” says Michael Collins Senior Director of State and Local Government Affairs. “What we don’t need are vacuous talking points from the same legislators who passed SB63, a bill which expands the use of wealth-based detention against the Black community, and will only serve to increase jail populations and jail deaths across the state.”

In June of this year, the Community Over Cages coalition launched a campaign against the jail, complete with a report debunking the case for a $2B facility. The report demonstrated that overuse of pretrial incarceration is hurting the safety and well-being of Fulton County residents. It also outlined the weaknesses of the jail feasibility study, including its failure to take into account falling crime rates, its failure to examine actions the District Attorney’s office could take to lower jail populations, and the failure to seriously consider renovation of the current jail as an alternative to building a new jail. 

Fulton County should prioritize investment into alternative measures that ensure the safety of Black communities, not another for profit jail. 

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