Fulton County officials report falling jail population, outline facility blitz and maintenance needs

Fulton County commissioners heard an update Feb. 19 on jail population trends, the county's jail improvement ("jail blitz") program and maintenance issues, after public commenters urged the board to pursue decarceration and investigate reports of abuse and recent deaths.

County staff said the county's average monthly jail population fell to about 2,470 in January and remained near that level in mid-February. County strategy office presenter Steve Naraki told commissioners average length of stay dropped from 48 days to 40 days in January, but some clearance and disposition metrics for felony cases have declined and the county is rebuilding automated reporting for unindicted populations that was previously produced manually.

Naraki said the county is shifting to an automated inmate-analysis process to replace a time-intensive manual review. "We are now switching to an automated process to pull this data," he said, adding that standing up the new reporting will take several months.

Joseph Davis, director of estate and asset management, described the facility blitz that has refurbished housing units and returned some floors to service. He said seven of 11 housing units have been completed, representing a 64% completion rate; he said Housing Unit 5 South has reopened and 7 North is nearing…