KALLIS: That's Tate McCotter with the National Institute for Jail Operations. TATE MCCOTTER: Jails have become the dumping ground for the mentally ill. Now a special study committee of state senators is also looking into the problem. Justice Department has been investigating. KALLIS: The sheriff's office acknowledged the overcrowding and staff shortages, and the U.S. So many people who can't afford bail can be immediately freed. It's the same jail where former President Donald Trump was booked in August.īASIL JUPITER: You know, not everybody is Donald Trump, who can just go in and out. Activists like Basil Jupiter have long pushed for an end to cash bail to ease the overcrowding at the jail. Ten people have died this year in the Fulton County Jail. KALLIS: Before he died, his son Lawrence had written a letter to federal officials alleging violent physical abuse by jail staff and improper psychiatric treatment. I'll never see my son again, and he's been taken away from me. Officials say Lawrence was murdered by his cellmate. KALLIS: Frank Richardson wanted justice for his son, who had been in the jail for eight months, awaiting trial on a second-degree arson charge. SARAH KALLIS, BYLINE: In September, 10 days after Samuel Lawrence died in the Fulton County Jail, his father and supporters rallied in front of the county courthouse. As Sarah Kallis of Georgia Public Broadcasting reports, that has leaders and activists scrambling for a solution. In Atlanta's Fulton County Jail, the overcrowding has meant death. That led to overcrowding in the nation's jails, where some defendants have been waiting, sometimes for years, for their day in court. Courts across the country are still catching up on criminal prosecutions that were ground to a halt during the pandemic.
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