Articles

300 Inmates May Move From Fulton Jail

Steve Visser,D.L. Bennett, AJC Staff
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 9, 2004

Clayton County offered Tuesday to house 300 of Fulton County's inmates to help Sheriff Jackie Barrett deal with problems at the crowded jail.

The offer, however, didn't come without a price tag, nor did it stop the criticism of the way Barrett has managed her jail.

Fulton County Commission Chairwoman Karen Handel, who has dismissed Barrett's assertions that she needs more money to deal with problems at the jail, will meet with the sheriff today at the Fulton County Justice Center.

The Republican chairwoman said she hoped the sit-down with the Democratic sheriff would help resolve the debate over funding and operation of the jail, which has been plagued by improper prisoner releases and escapes the past year.

However, Handel said Barrett wouldn't be getting any more money. "If she can't run her jail with $80 million a year, that is for her to work out," she said.

Handel said Barrett should transfer prisoners to other jails or take any other steps she can, within the budget, to improve operations and make the facility safer.

Earlier Tuesday, Barrett, flanked by sheriffs from Clayton and DeKalb counties, announced that Clayton had offered to house 300 of Fulton's inmates. That would relieve nearly half of Fulton's current overcrowding.

Clayton Sheriff Stanley Tuggle said he could house the inmates in an unused section of his jail. But he also said Barrett had to provide the guards and that Fulton would have to pay $25 to $35 a day per inmate Ñ or at least $228,000 a month. Barrett said she would need more money from the County Commission to make such a deal work.

"Let's stop the finger-pointing and the political rhetoric and start working together to solve this very important matter," said Barrett, who is seeking re-election this year. The sheriff said the crowded conditions, combined with understaffing, were "a recipe for disaster."

Barrett has complained for more than a year about the jail situation. The complex is designed to accommodate 2,200 inmates but now holds about 2,900. Barrett says the transfer would be a cost-effective way to ease crowding.

But Handel did not budge from her assertion that more money was not needed.

"Every time an elected official gets in trouble for not doing their job well, they claim they don't have enough money," Handel said. The sheriff will have to squeeze it from her operational budget Ñ as she did to hire 18 more guards in February Ñ or make do with the crowding, Handel said.

Handel has floated the idea that the county might consider using the unused portion of the Alpharetta jail, but that would make available only a few dozen cells. It's an idea that Barrett asked the commission to fund this year, but she said the commission refused.

[AJC staff] Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report. Reprinted with permission from The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. Further reproduction, retransmission or distribution of these materials without the prior written consent of The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution, and any copyright holder identified in the material's copyright notice, is prohibited.