ATLANTA — Research released Tuesday suggests the World Cup games could cause more problems at the Fulton County Jail.
High-profile, crowded events can lead to more arrests, meaning more people would face health and safety concerns at the overpopulated, understaffed facility.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Now, Georgia’s American Civil Liberties Union is recommending ways county leaders can reduce the population before soccer comes to the city.
“It’s really a matter of life and death for folks incarcerated in that facility,” said ACLU Georgia Policy Advocate Shruit Lakshmanan.
ACLU Georgia told Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco has been investigating the jail’s population since 2022.
“What we found is that limited progress has been made. Too many people are incarcerated because they can’t afford their bail, because of slow case processing, because diversion isn’t being fully utilized,” said Lakshmanan. “Where we’re actually seeing backsliding is on misdemeanor detention.”
In the first seven months of 2023, she said the number of inmates charged with misdemeanor crimes was 3%. In the first seven months of 2025, that number was 17%.
“We’ve seen people die from suicide, violence, neglect. There is an under-staffing crisis at the Fulton County Jail,” Lakshmanan said. “Patrick Labat, the sheriff, has gone before the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, previously, to ask for more funding for incentives for people to work in the jail. Those incentives haven’t worked because the conditions are so dangerous there.”
She said the study also found a backlog of maintenance issues, like the flooding that occurred over the weekend.
That left Commissioner Mo Ivory passionately expressing support for more funding or a new jail.
“It’s already been deemed unconstitutionally uninhabitable, right?” said Ivory.
She pointed out the consent decree requiring the county to improve conditions by law.
The ACLU study suggests the fastest way to improve safety before the World Cup is to focus on reducing the misdemeanor population that jumped last year.
It said law enforcement, judges and the District Attorney’s Office can lean on diversion programs more to do that, rely less on money bail that can leave inmates stuck, and revisit cases in which people are left in jail for long periods of time to ensure case processing isn’t so slow.
“We see so many people who are unindicted, hundreds of people who are unindicted, in custody for more than 90 days,” said Lakshmanan.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2026 Cox Media Group
