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Axios Atlanta
Here's who's running against Pat Labat for Fulton sheriff
By Thomas Wheatley,
21 days ago
Three candidates are challenging Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat in the May 21 primary . Top of mind: ending the deaths and deplorable state of the county's jail on Rice Street.
Why it matters: 13 inmates have died at Rice Street since 2023 , including three this year. Democratic U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Atlanta) have asked the Department of Justice to make its investigation of the jail a "priority."
Conditions are so rough at the northwest Atlanta lock-up that inmates are using pieces of the building to create shanks, incumbent Sheriff Pat Labat has told media and elected officials .
Driving the news: Labat is facing three Democratic challengers, all of whom have worked at the jail.
Joyce Farmer , a 30-year veteran of the sheriff's office, said at a recent community forum that she'd segregate inmates with medical and mental issues in a separate division, 11 Alive reports .
Kirt Beasley , who worked under Labat's predecessor Ted Jackson, discussed a diversion center and working with the courts and prosecutors for some early release programs.
James "J.T." Brown , a private security firm CEO who served under six Fulton sheriffs starting in the mid-1980s, said the office could retain employees with better benefits, like child care.
Catch up quick: Labat , who took office in 2021, told a Georgia Senate committee Tuesday that he inherited a decrepit, outdated facility designed to house 1,125 individuals when it opened in the late 1980s.
Outsourcing inmates to other county jails and diversion programs have helped the jail do away with people sleeping on the floor in so-called "boats" and lowered the population to 1,731 inmates, he said. Regardless, the jail remains dangerous.
New hires will play a role but a new facility — estimates for which have neared $2 billion — is needed, Labat said.
Yes, but: Devin Franklin, the movement building and policy counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights, told Axios a new jail with new programs "does not solve the issue of overcrowding."
"It only incentivizes [inmates'] continued pre-trial detention and de-incentives the ability of government officials to invest more substantively in helpful programs and services available to the community at large."
State of play: Early voting is underway and ends on May 17. If no candidate wins more than half the votes, a runoff will be held on June 18.
Charles Rambo , another former Fulton sheriff's department employee, qualified as a write-in candidate on the November ballot.
What's next: State Rep. Mesha Mainor (R-Atlanta) and James Woodall, the former president of the Georgia NAACP, are hosting a candidate debate on May 9 at 6:30pm at Lindsay Street Baptist Church and via Zoom.
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