“A death sentence as well:” Deadly Conditions Worsen in GA Prisons and Jails
On April 27, Public Policy Director Tiffany Williams Roberts was featured on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s Political Rewind to discuss deadly conditions in Georgia’s prisons and jails:
“In many instances, a prison sentence in Georgia can be a death sentence as well… The dehumanization of poor people, of Black people in the South, really lends itself to the apathy that many people feel when they see people in custody suffering.”
In September 2022, LaShawn Thompson, a man with a documented history of mental illness, was found dead in the psychiatric wing of the Fulton County Jail covered with bed bugs. His death coincided with calls from SCHR demanding an investigation into insect infestations and other squalid conditions in the jail’s housing units. On April 20, Mr. Thompson’s family and their legal team held a press conference outside the jail to hold Sheriff Labat and county officials accountable for the horrific death of their brother and son.
Public Policy Director Tiffany Williams Roberts, a featured speaker, questioned the sheriff’s ceaseless efforts to build a new jail while people die in the space he already has:
“How dare this sheriff stand with a grieving family, pat their backs, make platitudes while he is asking for $2 billion to transfer this problem to a larger and more expensive facility. How long will we hide from the reality that Fulton County is chronically dysfunctional and there is no humanity in a system like this?”