{"id":142,"date":"2026-06-02T16:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=142"},"modified":"2026-06-02T16:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:12:07","slug":"no-new-beds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"No New Beds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New jail construction is quietly booming across the United States. Some may be surprised to learn that during the most intense jail-building years, from 1990<\/span> to 2005<\/span>, a\u00a0new facility opened every 10<\/span>\u00a0days.<\/p>

Read more \u201cWe Demand Freedom\u201d: Immigrants on Strike in New Jersey Prison<\/a><\/p>\n

There are nearly 2<\/span>\u00a0million people presently caged in more than 6<\/span>,000<\/span> correctional facilities across the country, including 1<\/span>,566<\/span> state prisons and 3<\/span>,116<\/span> local jails. Recent data shows that number has only grown, and the push to build new jails and prisons\u00a0continues.<\/p>\n

Currently, a\u00a0new $3<\/span> billion jail in Brooklyn is moving ahead, a $1<\/span>.25<\/span> billion prison in Alabama is nearly complete and, among many others, lawmakers in Hawai\u2019i are considering a\u00a0new $1<\/span> billion mega-jail, a\u00a0facility with more than 1<\/span>,000<\/span>\u00a0beds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to the Prison Policy Initiative, while the stated goals of jail construction are safety, security, and solving jail overcrowding, the result is most often hundreds or thousands of new jail beds to incarcerate even more people and a\u00a0windfall for contractors in charge of designing and building new\u00a0jails.<\/p>\n

Because jail construction feels so mundane, it\u2019s more remarkable when proposed jails don\u2019t get built. That\u2019s why many organizers are focusing on new jails and carceral institutions, because, as hard as it is to defeat new construction, it\u2019s even more difficult to close a\u00a0facility that\u2019s already\u00a0open.<\/p>\n

In California, the ICE Out of Dublin Coalition is leading the opposition to a\u00a0proposed detention center. In Massachusetts, the abolitionist nonprofit Families for Justice as Healing made its mark in 2020<\/span> by significantly slowing the process for a\u00a0new women\u2019s prison. Elsewhere in the Northeast, the group Free Her Vermont successfully pushed back against a $90<\/span> million proposal for a\u00a0new women\u2019s\u00a0facility.<\/p>\n

Since 2021<\/span>, Atlanta has been known as a\u00a0focal point for abolitionists, as organizers there mounted a\u00a0massive campaign against a $120<\/span> million police training facility, dubbed Cop City, in the wake of the Atlanta police murder of Rayshard Brooks. But Cop City hasn\u2019t been their only terrain of\u00a0struggle.<\/p>\n

In July 2024<\/span>, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners rejected a\u00a0proposed $2<\/span> billion mega-jail\u2009\u2014\u2009a big win for the organizers who fought to prevent the project and instead pushed for investment in prearrest diversion, mental healthcare and other community\u00a0resources.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>If that money can be redirected to provide services and resources in the community, then we wouldn\u2019t need a $2<\/span> billion jail or new jail, period,\u201d explains Robyn Hasan-Simpson, executive director of the nonprofit Women on the\u00a0Rise.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about \u200b\u201c<\/span>getting people to understand,\u201d Hasan-Simpson said, \u200b\u201c<\/span>what would really bring\u201d about change, in contrast to just locking people\u00a0up.<\/p>\n

But now, a\u00a0different jail proposal is moving forward, setting up a\u00a0new round in the\u00a0struggle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Crumbling, Crowded Jail on Rice Street<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Fulton County Jail, often referred to as \u200b\u201c<\/span>Rice Street,\u201d has been plagued by overcrowding since it opened in 1989<\/span>. Originally built for 1<\/span>,125<\/span> people, it now frequently holds more than 3<\/span>,000<\/span> people, serving as the main site of pretrial detention for the city of\u00a0Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Conditions are, by all accounts, horrific. Hundreds of men routinely sleep in plastic \u200b\u201c<\/span>boats\u201d on the floor of common spaces. Fifteen people died in the jail in 2022<\/span> alone, all of them Black, including Lashawn Thompson, whose family described his death as being \u200b\u201c<\/span>eaten alive by insects and bedbugs.\u201d A\u00a0November 2022<\/span> investigation by the Southern Center for Human Rights revealed that, in one unit for people with mental illnesses, every individual had lice, scabies or both. Ninety percent of those in the unit had lost muscle mass and fat from\u00a0malnourishment.<\/p>\n

Lawsuits involving the Fulton County jail have been relentless. The county has hemorrhaged funds, from $4<\/span> million paid out to Lashawn Thompson\u2019s family to $2<\/span> million paid out to hundreds of people whose release dates were ignored in 2014<\/span> because of a\u00a0database outage.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I had knives put to my throat, and I\u00a0had to call my mom telling them, \u200b\u2018<\/span>Please wire somebody some money or I\u2019m going to be killed,\u2019\u00a0\u201d one former detainee told the Fulton County Board of Commissioner in September 2023<\/span>. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Nobody should be subject to that at a\u00a0jail where you\u2019re supposed to be waiting to get your day in\u00a0court.\u201d<\/p>\n

As County Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman tells In These Times<\/em>, people who get arrested in Fulton County sometimes \u200b\u201c<\/span>feel like it\u2019s a\u00a0death sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of its size and conditions, the jail has been under federal supervision multiple times, first for about a\u00a0decade starting in 2006<\/span>, then again following a\u00a02024<\/span> Department of Justice investigation exposing the jail\u2019s\u00a0violence.<\/p>\n

Regardless, not much changed, and the Fulton County Commission insists the jail\u2019s problems stem from operational issues in the sheriff\u2019s\u00a0office.<\/p>\n

One solution to the overcrowding might first appear to be simply building a\u00a0bigger jail, a\u00a0line that many in Fulton County\u2019s political leadership have parroted, going back decades. County Commissioner Dana Barrett took that line in a\u00a02024<\/span> guest column for Appen Media, writing that the county needs to invest in \u200b\u201c<\/span>a long-term strategy that is humane, safe and improves public safety countywide.\u201d The defeated mega-jail, which Barrett supported, would have been four times the size of the existing jail and doubled the county\u2019s jail\u00a0capacity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Illustration by Margaret Vail Palmquist<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Abdur-Rahman takes issue with the idea that a\u00a0bigger jail would solve the problem, telling In These Times<\/em> that \u200b\u201c<\/span>the system still will not work in a\u00a0brand new shiny box.\u201d \u200b\u201c<\/span>The responsibility lies with the sheriff,\u201d she\u00a0maintains.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat\u2009\u2014\u2009who has also long insisted on the need for a\u00a0new jail\u2009\u2014\u2009blames the Fulton County Commission for not allocating enough funds to adequately staff the\u00a0jail.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>For decades prior to my administration, the sheriff\u2019s office has faced inadequate funding, which continues to cause tension between us properly serving our community and those that want to grandstand during commission meetings,\u201d Labat wrote in statements provided to In These Times<\/em>. He has also maintained that the district attorney\u2019s office has been irresponsible in moving through its backlog of\u00a0cases.<\/p>\n

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, for her part, claimed in an interview with Capital B\u00a0News that commissioners are \u200b\u201c<\/span>liars\u201d if they don\u2019t acknowledge how much more expensive the jail is than allocating her office proper funds to process cases more quickly and get more people out of detention\u00a0faster.<\/p>\n

Coalition organizers, in contrast, point out that Fulton County\u2019s repeated attempts to add jail beds by contracting with neighboring municipalities\u2009\u2014\u2009including a\u00a0four-year lease for 700<\/span> beds in the Atlanta city jail, signed in 2022<\/span>\u2009\u2014\u2009haven\u2019t worked, and that more beds are not the answer. Men are still sleeping on the\u00a0floor.<\/p>\n

Internal disagreements between Fulton officials over solutions to the jail\u2019s problems, and the commission\u2019s July 2024<\/span> vote against the new jail, reflect changing opinions on the necessity of new jail construction. According to Hasan-Simpson, the shiftin public opinion against the mega-jail came as organizers began focusing on other options\u2009\u2014\u2009such as the alternatives-to-policing program that the Community Over Cages coalition has been pushing for\u00a0years.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>A lot of times\u2009\u2014\u2009when we are always screaming, \u200b\u2018<\/span>Hey, close the jail or don\u2019t build a\u00a0new jail!\u2019\u2009\u2014\u2009they\u2019re looking for, \u200b\u2018<\/span>OK, if we don\u2019t, then what?\u2019\u00a0\u201d Hasan-Simpson explains. \u200b\u201c<\/span>And I\u00a0think once we filled that hole, it filled that gap and gives them solutions, instead of just giving them what they should be doing. \u200b\u201c<\/span>That\u2019s when it opened up their\u00a0eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Build and Build<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The consulting firm Pulitzer\/\u200bBogard &<\/span>\u00a0Associates is one of the go-to consultants for jail construction in the United States, regularly winning six-figure contracts for its jail feasibility studies. Currently, it serves as one of the chief architects designing a \u200b\u201c<\/span>mental health diversion center\u201d in Austin, Texas, and the firm wrote a\u00a02024<\/span> report in favor of more beds in a\u00a0jail in Kansas City,\u00a0Mo.<\/p>\n

In January 2022<\/span>, Fulton County commissioned the firm, among others, for a $1<\/span>.2<\/span> million feasibility study for the proposed mega-jail. The study ultimately highlighted a\u00a0recommendation for a\u00a0significantly larger facility (for 5<\/span>,480<\/span> people) at more than twice as much than the $400<\/span> to $500<\/span> million Labat estimated after he was elected and started to hard pitch commissioners and the public on the\u00a0project.<\/p>\n

Though framed as an exploration of whether the county needed a\u00a0new jail, the consultants\u2019 answer was effectively a\u00a0predetermined \u200b\u201c<\/span>yes,\u201d as evidenced by its leading questions: first, \u200b\u201c<\/span>Do we need a\u00a0new jail?\u201d And second, \u200b\u201c<\/span>How big should it\u00a0be?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Staudt, policy and advocacy director at the Prison Policy Initiative, notes the Fulton County study is hardly an outlier, and that it\u2019s \u200b\u201c<\/span>extraordinarily rare\u201d for such studies not to recommend new, and more expensive,\u00a0construction.<\/p>\n

When the firm created a\u00a0similar report for a\u00a0jail in Hawai\u2019i, the state\u2019s Correctional Reform Working Group noted the population growth projections were \u200b\u201c<\/span>inadequate and misleading.\u201d According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the plan also ignored \u200b\u201c<\/span>straightforward measures that could be used to reduce Hawai\u2019i\u2019s jail population, many of which are cited in the Forecast\u00a0Report.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the request of the Community Over Cages coalition, the Prison Policy Initiative produced its own report on Fulton County, debunking the core claim that a\u00a0new jail was necessary. When the coalition highlighted the report at a\u00a0press conference and rally, organizers say it seemed to unsettle the Fulton County\u00a0Commission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It Takes a Coalition<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Community Over Cages coalition, launched in 2018<\/span>, has dozens of member organizations representing a\u00a0wide swath of the Atlanta Left, including the broader Stop Cop City movement. That includes the formerly incarcerated women of color of Women on the Rise, who are fighting to close the Atlanta City Detention Center (the Atlanta city jail) and transform it into a\u00a0community resource\u00a0center.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019<\/span>, after a\u00a0series of hard-won reforms\u2009\u2014\u2009marijuana reclassification, bail reform, the end of the Atlanta Department of Corrections\u2019 contract with ICE, and the creation of an alternatives-to-policing program\u2014the coalition won legislation from Mayor Bottoms and the Atlanta City Council to close and transform the city jail. The council\u2019s commitment seemed like a\u00a0major victory, and the process of designing the transformation began shortly\u00a0after.<\/p>\n

Instead, in 2022<\/span>, city officials reversed course on their commitment and, in the name of redressing overcrowding at the Fulton County Jail, proposed leasing 700<\/span> empty jail beds to the county at a\u00a0rate of $50<\/span> per person per\u00a0day.<\/p>

Read more The Poetics of Malcolm X<\/a><\/p>\n

Organizers who saw the jail transformation plan slipping away fiercely resisted the lease proposal, bringing the coalition squarely before the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. There, coalition members contested the sheriff\u2019s narrative that the problem was inadequate jail\u00a0capacity.<\/p>\n

Though the lease was ultimately approved, coalition members used the fight against it to chip away at the perceived need for new jail beds. Attempting to drive a\u00a0wedge between the sheriff and Commission members, coalition organizers highlighted the sheriff\u2019s role in the jail\u2019s problems and offered practical solutions to depopulate the jail without adding new\u00a0beds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Building on its fight against the lease, the coalition turned its attention to stopping the proposed mega-jail and depopulating the existing Fulton County Jail. In September 2023<\/span>, coalition member Color of Change, a\u00a0national racial justice organization, launched a\u00a0pressure campaign against District Attorney Willis and Fulton County Solicitor-General Keith Gammage, centering their role in the county\u2019s massive case backlog and restrictive bail amounts. In July 2023<\/span>, Fulton County had more than 39<\/span>,000<\/span> open and unresolved cases, with at least 36<\/span>% of the jail population languishing in pretrial\u00a0detention.<\/p>\n

The coalition also applied pressure through national and local media outlets that questioned Willis\u2019 status as a\u00a0hero for the Trump indictment, which Michael Collins, former senior director of government affairs with Color of Change, said prompted a\u00a0meeting with county\u00a0officials.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I saw her [Willis] as somebody who was really more interested in her national profile, but she wasn\u2019t really caring what groups in Atlanta thought of her,\u201d says Collins, \u200b\u201c<\/span>And I\u00a0knew that we, as a\u00a0national Black-led organization, could really get under her\u00a0skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly a\u00a0week later, Willis pushed internally to reduce the Fulton County Jail population by reducing bail amounts. By the end of 2023<\/span>, Collins says, the jail population went down by roughly a\u00a0third\u2009\u2014\u2009without building any new jail\u00a0capacity.<\/p>\n

In 2024<\/span>, Collins explains, the coalition doubled down on defeating the proposed county mega-jail. Despite the $2<\/span> billion price tag, county officials seemed to be moving\u00a0forward.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>It was an astronomically high number,\u201d Collins says, adding, \u200b\u201c<\/span>We don\u2019t need this $2<\/span> billion deal; the jail population is\u00a0down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coalition began monthly strategy meetings to chart its campaign against the mega-jail, building on its arguments against the city jail: that the problem washigh bail amounts, case backlogs, frequent arrests for minor offenses and mismanagement, not lack of\u00a0beds.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>You can safely reduce the jail population by doing things that are just case processing,\u201d Collins says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>There aren\u2019t even bold reforms. I\u00a0mean, it was just like, \u200b\u2018<\/span>Do your\u00a0job.\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Illustration by Margaret Vail Palmquist<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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According to Devin Franklin, Movement Policy Counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights, the coalition\u2019s persistence was one of its most powerful\u00a0traits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Members regularly gave comments at city and county meetings to remind officials that, just as the coalition predicted, the city jail lease was failing to solve the problems at Fulton County\u00a0Jail.<\/p>\n

Coalition members also called on officials to increase use of the newly opened prearrest diversion center, another result of the coalition\u2019s advocacy that is meantto prevent certain arrests in the first place. Robb Pitts, chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, even repeated advocates\u2019 call for diversion, after a\u00a0report showed Atlanta police were far underutilizing the center.<\/p>\n

The coalition also regularly amplified scandals related to the mega-jail\u2019s main champion, Sheriff Patrick Labat. At one point, for example, the private security that Labat hired at the Fulton County Jail walked off the job, citing lack of\u00a0payment.<\/p>\n

On several occasions, Labat\u2019s staff had been arrested for smuggling contraband or abusing those\u00a0detained.<\/p>\n

Labat also successfully pitched the board to contract with a\u00a0company that coincidentally turned out to be one of his campaign\u00a0donors.<\/p>\n

And the Atlanta city jail lease that Labat had fought so hard for was underutilized\u2009\u2014\u2009given Labat\u2019s failure to staff the\u00a0facility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The coalition\u2019s narrative that, as Collins phrased it publicly, \u200b\u201c<\/span>Sheriff Labat is a\u00a0thoroughly corrupt individual,\u201d appeared to resonate, with even some of Labat\u2019s previous allies on the commission adding to the chorus of\u00a0critique.<\/p>\n

Originally in support of Labat\u2019s campaign for a\u00a0new jail, Abdur-Rahman says, \u200b\u201c<\/span>The biggest thing that changed my mind\u2009\u2014\u2009I\u2019ll be honest with you\u2009\u2014\u2009is accountability. If you ask the sheriff, \u200b\u2018<\/span>Why does this happen?\u2019 he will tell you that it\u2019s everybody else\u2019s\u00a0fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

With each new death in Fulton County Jail custody, Labat and others tried to argue for the mega-jail, but the coalition maintained that \u200b\u201c<\/span>a humanitarian response\u201d was needed instead. The coalition even approached civil rights attorneys working on these wrongful death cases\u2009\u2014\u2009who sometimes appeared to reflexively call for a\u00a0new jail\u2009\u2014\u2009to adjust their messaging. That was another effort that paid off, Collins\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Community organizers and people with lived experience actually came together to tell and inform the county about what is really needed and fighting against what the sheriff is trying to propose,\u201d Hasan-Simpson\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

It seemed to\u00a0work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rinse and Repeat<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Good organizers know that any political win is just one round of the fight, but the next round of the Fulton County Jail fight arrived sooner than most\u00a0expected.<\/p>\n

After voting down the Fulton County mega-jail in July 2024<\/span>, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners pivoted to a $300<\/span> million renovation of the existing jail instead. Many organizers (including the authors of this article) celebrated the development for its drastic reduction in scale and scope compared to the original proposal. And, for a\u00a0year, it seemed a\u00a0new jail was off the\u00a0table.<\/p>\n

But in August 2025<\/span>, Fulton Commission Chair Robb Pitts suddenly announced a\u00a0new, $1<\/span>.2<\/span> billion hybrid proposal to combine the renovations with the construction of an 1<\/span>,800<\/span>-bed \u200b\u201c<\/span>special purpose facility.\u201d The name is meant, Pitts implied, to convey that the proposal is not for a\u00a0new jail.<\/p>\n

The \u200b\u201c<\/span>explicit purpose\u201d of this \u200b\u201c<\/span>special purpose facility,\u201d though, is to incarcerate people with mental health conditions. That\u2019s according to Mark Spencer, part of the group Stop Criminalization of Our Patients, another member of the coalition. Replacing a\u00a0jail with a \u200b\u201c<\/span>special purpose facility\u201d\u2009\u2014\u2009replete with cages, restraints and guards\u2009\u2014\u2009is not offering the care people need, Spencer tells In These Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>At the end of the day, [a jail] is essentially the complete opposite of a\u00a0therapeutic environment. \u2026 When [an incarcerated] patient comes to the hospital, they can\u2019t even get medical privacy. Guards sit in their room while they\u2019re shackled to the bed. How is any of this creating an environment that you would think is conducive to mental health and healing?\u201d he\u00a0asks.<\/p>\n

While the Board of Commissioners approved the proposal in August, the so-called special facility is still far from construction\u2009\u2014\u2009leaving room for continued advocacy by the\u00a0coalition.<\/p>\n

Before voting in favor of the $1<\/span>.2<\/span> billion proposal, Commissioner Abdur-Rahman told In These Times<\/em> that \u200b\u201c<\/span>I don\u2019t believe that a\u00a0new jail is needed. We could give the sheriff a\u00a0billion-dollar jail today, and none of those problems will cease.\u201d And Commissioner Barrett seemed taken by surprise by the press conference organized by Pitts to announce the new\u00a0facility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For his part, Labat opposes the current proposal\u2009\u2014\u2009as too minimal. In a\u00a0written statement, he tells In These Times<\/em> that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners is to blame and he has \u200b\u201c<\/span>no doubt the current plan the [commission] recently passed will endure cost overruns north of $2<\/span> billion; will take 9<\/span>\u00a0or 10<\/span>\u00a0years to complete; and will have the same impact as the first recommendation I\u00a0made three years\u00a0ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question of who would pay for the $2<\/span> billion mega-jail was never fully answered, and the two main financing options\u2009\u2014\u2009raising county property taxes and passing a\u00a0new local sales tax\u2009\u2014\u2009were ultimately rejected as politically untenable. Indeed, in May 2024<\/span>, state lawmakers signaled they would reject a\u00a0county request for authorization of a\u00a0new sales tax, dealing a\u00a0significant blow to the plan\u2019s\u00a0proponents.<\/p>\n

The new $1<\/span>.2<\/span> billion proposal may suffer the same fate: It doesn\u2019t seem the public is any more interested in increased taxes for jails now than they were two years ago, and skepticism abounds regarding the vague claims that it\u2019s financially possible to build without\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

Whether the proposal will fail on its own or not, the coalition remains committed to fighting it\u2009\u2014\u2009and to using the fight as an opportunity to change the narrative around\u00a0incarceration.<\/p>\n

Organizers also remain focused on ending the Atlanta city jail lease to Fulton County so the building can finally be repurposed as a\u00a0community center. They say it\u2019s still about persistence, and staying in the fight\u2009\u2014\u2009for as many rounds as\u00a0needed.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>The first couple knocks on the door don\u2019t knock the door down,\u201d says Devin Franklin, an attorney for the Southern Center for Human Rights. \u200b\u201c<\/span>But it makes it easier for the 99<\/span>th<\/sup> and 100<\/span>th<\/sup> knock, so to speak, to knock it\u00a0down.\u201d<\/p>

Read more The Death Squads Hunting Environmental Defenders<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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