Senate committee adopts Fulton County jail report, debates bill to transfer Atlanta Detention Center to county

The Senate Public Safety Committee on Jan. 21 voted to adopt a 17-point report from a subcommittee that studied operations at the Fulton County jail system and discussed Senate Bill 7, a bill aimed at securing the Atlanta Detention Center for Fulton County use or long-term lease.

The committee formally approved the subcommittee’s final recommendations after debate and a failed amendment to strike recommendation No. 2, which calls for the city of Atlanta to transfer the Atlanta Detention Center to Fulton County. The committee also approved its operating rules at the start of the meeting.

Why it matters: Committee chair Senator Albers said the county and city dispute over ADC contributes to overcrowding at the Rice Street jail and that an ADC transfer or lease could let Fulton separate medically and mentally fragile detainees from higher-risk offenders. “This is an easily solvable problem if we’ll all let our egos and everything go down and just work on solving the problem,” Albers said during the meeting.

Report adoption and the failed amendment: The subcommittee’s report, prepared after a year of hearings and expert testimony, contains 17 recommendations addressing oversight, audits, case tracking, budgeting and interagency coordination in Fulton County’s justice system. Senator Halpern moved an amendment to remove recommendation No. 2 (the ADC transfer recommendation); Senator Jackson seconded the amendment. Committee members voted 4 in favor of removing the…