Justice Department Finds ‘Dehumanizing’ Filth and Violence at Atlanta Jail Where Man Died Covered in Bugs

Two years after a mentally ill man died malnourished and covered in insects in Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail, a Justice Department investigation has found that man’s death was only one of a string of fatalities due to pervasive unconstitutional conditions at the jail.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division released a report Thursday concluding that the Fulton County Jail, which handles pre-trial detention for most of Atlanta, subjects incarcerated people to pest infestations and malnourishment, excessive force from correctional officers, and fails to protect them from rampant violence and sexual assaults from other inmates. The report found that these conditions violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The Justice Department launched the civil rights investigation in the wake of the 2022 death of Lashawn Thompson. Thompson, a 35-year-old man with schizophrenia, had been incarcerated at the Fulton County Jail for three months on a misdemeanor battery charge when he was found dead in an extremely filthy cell. Thompson’s body was covered in lice, bedbugs, and lesions. An independent autopsy listed his cause of death as “severe neglect,” noting Thompson was suffering from a “severe body insect infestation.”

In a press statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thompson’s “horrific death was symptomatic of a pattern of dangerous and dehumanizing conditions in the Fulton County Jail.”

“The Justice Department’s report concluded that Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office allowed unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the Jail,” Garland said. “As a result, people incarcerated in the Fulton County Jail suffered harms from pest infestation and malnourishment and were put at substantial risk of serious harm from violence by other incarcerated people—including homicides, stabbings and sexual abuse.”

Justice Department investigators reported widespread infestations of mice, roaches, bedbugs, lice, and scabies.

In addition to being unsanitary, the jail’s kitchen also fails to adequately feed detainees. The report notes that jail medical staff determined in 2022 that 90 percent of the people in the mental health unit where Thompson died were “significantly malnourished with obvious muscle wasting.”

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