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Fulton And Atlanta: Jail Marriage On Again?

April 10th, 2009
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ga-atlanta-jail1Plans for Fulton County GA to take over Atlanta’s jail resurfaced Thursday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Attorneys involved in the ongoing effort to improve conditions inside the Fulton County Jail talked about a plan where the county would make an offer to the city to operate its jail, said Emmet Bondurant, an attorney who attended the meeting.   About 1,044 inmates are housed daily at the Atlanta jail —- two-thirds of them federal or Fulton County inmates, city auditors say. Thursday’s meeting was held in the offices of Senior U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob, who is overseeing a federal court order to improve the jail …

“This appears to be a serendipitous opportunity,” said Bondurant, former chairman of a commission that pushed for the idea four years ago. “[The city] has a facility too large for its own needs and the [county] has a facility that is too small.”  Greg Giornelli, the city’s chief operating officer, said Atlanta is willing to listen to any county proposals.  “We are considering all options related to the city jail,” he said Thursday. “However, a deal with Fulton County is particularly compelling on a number of levels.”

City officials were reluctant to consider the idea in 2005 and 2006, but the concept is more compelling now, for several reasons. Atlanta, like most big cities, is suffering financially and its corrections department budget is $38.5 million. A recent internal audit of that department found it overspent its corrections budget six of the past seven years.

vericatrajkova County-City Issues, Economic Issues, GA Atlanta City, GA Fulton County, Georgia

Atlanta City Jail Losing Money

March 17th, 2009
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ga-atlanta-jailA new corrections audit raises questions whether Atlanta GA should continue to operate a city jail, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The report released Friday found that the city jail was over budget six of the last seven years —- despite two revenue-generating contracts to house prisoners for Fulton County and two federal agencies. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008, the department was about $4 million over budget, the audit found.  Both deals, the audit found, actually cost Atlanta way more money than they generate.  Atlanta houses inmates for Fulton County, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at a rate of $68 per day —- a loss of about $20 a day, the auditors found.

Leslie Ward, Atlanta’s internal auditor, said the city relies far too much on overtime because of chronic absenteeism among jailers. She also found that some space inside the jail isn’t properly used.  “I’m starting to wonder why we are in the jail business,” Ward said … About 1,044 inmates are housed in the Atlanta jail every day, two-thirds of them federal or Fulton County inmates, the audit found. “We need a holding cell, not a full-blown jail,” Councilman H. Lamar Willis said.

However,

Corrections Sgt. Ellis Williams, a leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees unit that represents corrections officials, criticized the audit, saying it was “willfully, deliberately and intentionally done” to encourage city leaders to close the jail.

vericatrajkova County-City Issues, Federal Payments, GA Atlanta City, ICE