ATLANTA– Several security guards at an Atlanta jail under federal investigation have walked off the job after the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office failed to pay money owed to the outside contractor that employed them, the sheriff’s office said.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that it is facing “a significant budget crisis” and owes more than $1 million to Strategic Security Corp. The company notified its employees Thursday afternoon that the contract had expired, that they would be clocked out at 2:15 p.m. and that they would not have to report to the jail in the future.
According to the sheriff’s office, there was an “immediate security concern” at the county’s main jail, and officers from all departments were sent to the jail.
Sheriff Pat Labat said nearly 50 of the contracted security officers came to the jail Thursday night and were given conditional offers of employment, with some able to work immediately after completing paperwork. The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an email Friday asking how many security officers were working at the jail under the contract.
The US Department of Justice opened a civil rights research in jail conditions in the county, citing violence and filthy conditions. Federal authorities specifically cited the September 2022 death of Lashawn Thompson, one of more than a dozen people who have died in county custody in the past two years. Thompson, 35, died in a cell full of bedbugs in the psychiatric ward of the prison.
Last year, a state legislature commission was created to investigate prison conditions completed last week that more cooperation was needed between the highest officials of the province.
Labat has long acknowledged the problems and has called for a new $1.7 billion jail to replace the crumbling main jail on Rice Street. But county commissioners voted 4-3 in July instead to approve a $300 million project to renovate the existing jail and build a new building to house inmates with special needs.