FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County says they have a plan to reduce the number of inmates at the Fulton County Jail, but the sheriff’s office isn’t sure it will work the way they say it will.
The Jail Monitor Report released last week on the conditions for the nearly 2,000 inmates at the jail. It says unless staffing increases or the population decreases, it will be hard for conditions to improve.
"Our jail was originally designed to accommodate 1,500 inmates, somewhere today we’re around 2,000," Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts.
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Pitts says he has a five-point plan that will reduce that number to 1,000 inmates.
"If an officer stops someone and decides to make an arrest, that person is given an option of going to jail or going to the diversion center," he explained.
That center is currently operating out of the Atlanta City Jail and can hold up to 40 people for 24 hours. It’s used for misdemeanor offenses.
Pitts says that right now between three or eight people use the county-wide service a day.
"Our initial estimates are that we could probably divert some 250 to 300 people who are in that jail right now had they had a second chance,“ he explained.
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Channel 2’s Eryn Rogers reached out to the sheriff’s office about they plan, but they said they had not heard about it.
They later sent a statement saying they do not think it would reduce numbers by that many.
“At our last check, we had 90 misdemeanor only residents in our custody, and these are primarily domestic violence or mental health related. While the Sheriff supports agencies using of the Diversion Center, we do not agree that it would reduce the population by 250-300,” they said in a statement.
Pitts says his plan will fix this problem, but not put a strain on people in Fulton County.
“It will cost the taxpayers very little, if anything at all, because the policies and procedures to do this are already in place,” he said.
He says he will reveal the other four parts of his plan at a meeting next week.
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