Fulton County details jail-population reduction steps as jail population rises

County administration gave a broad justice-system update that tracked hiring progress at the sheriff's office, steps to reduce jail population and operational work to relieve congestion in county jails.

Kenneth L. Herman Jr., the county's chief HR officer, said HR processed 24 hire transactions over the past two days, bringing the sheriff's office hiring tally to 99 and producing a net gain of 52 hires so far this year. "We processed those 24 transactions on Tuesday and this morning," Herman said; he attributed the recent uptake to process changes with the WALS vendor and the removal of the physical agility test that had disqualified many candidates.

Steve Naraki described progress on a five-point plan to lower the jail population: expanding ankle-monitor use (a net increase of 47 monitors in July to 756 monitors in active use), launching automated text reminders to reduce failures to appear (targeted for the end of the month or early September), instituting bond‑review calendars (initial sessions reduced some bonds and dismissed a few cases), standing up an arrest-and-warrant review/diversion hub with the Georgia Justice Project and state courts, and outsourcing some forensic evidence processing to third‑party labs to speed case resolution. Naraki said several elements — particularly lab contracts and pretrial operations funding — will be evaluated as part of the mid-year budget review.

Commissioners pressed for tracking that ties reduced bonds or other motions to actual reductions in jail population and for updates on outsourcing deals to move inmates temporarily to other counties given staffing constraints in the sheriff's office.