Preliminary Settlement Reached to Halt Conditions of Solitary Confinement at South Fulton Jail

On January 18th, United States Northern District Judge William M. Ray, II preliminarily approved the settlement agreement proposed by the parties in Georgia Advocacy Office, et al. v. Labat, et al.  

In April of 2019, the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Georgia Advocacy Office filed a lawsuit on behalf of a putative class of women with serious mental illness held in torturous conditions of solitary confinement for over 23 hours a day at the South Fulton Jail in Union City, Georgia. Plaintiffs presented photographs from an inspection by the Georgia Advocacy Office showing garbage strewn cells, standing toilet water on the floor, a trail of urine flowing from a cell door, bloody clothes and underwear stained with fecal matter lying in the living areas, toilets full of garbage, and feces and blood on the walls. These women, some of whom were caged because of petty offenses, would sometimes remain in their squalid cells around the clock for weeks or months on end.   

One of the original named plaintiffs, M.J., was a 20-year-old woman experiencing homelessness. She had been arrested in November of 2018 and charged with criminal trespass for allegedly refusing to leave a shopping mall when asked. She had a $500 bond that she couldn’t afford to pay. Because of her mental illness, jailers isolated M.J. in a so-called “mental health pod” where she was locked inside her cell for over 23 hours per day on average for nearly a year. She twice attempted suicide at the jail during her prolonged isolation.  Another woman with serious mental illness, Kesha Brownlee, died after swallowing a plastic utensil after months in solitary confinement.   

In July of 2019, Judge Ray issued a preliminary injunction ordering the Sheriff of Fulton County to take immediate steps to remedy the jail’s unconstitutional conditions and usage of solitary confinement. The settlement builds upon the previously-entered preliminary injunction. A fairness hearing has been scheduled for the 16th of March before Judge Ray. 

Among other things, the settlement mandates:  

• at least four hours of out-of-cell time, five days a week (one hour of which must be recreation time) with an hour of out-of-cell time offered on the other two days of the week for people with severe mental illness;  
• opportunities for meaningful therapeutic activities;  
• access to clean drinking water, personal hygiene items, reading materials, a sufficient supply of clothing and underwear, and a quality control process so that people are no longer served moldy, spoiled food;  
• training for correctional staff supervising people with severe mental illness; and 
• a reliable tracking system to ensure people with severe mental illness are receiving out-of-cell time.