FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County commissioners approved a $4.4 million contract to modernize elevators at the county jail after hundreds of reported problems, including incidents that Sheriff Pat Labat says endangered inmates and employees.
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Surveillance video obtained by Channel 2 Action News shows one of those incidents last month.
The video shows a Fulton County deputy transporting four inmates when the elevator suddenly stops.
Labat said the deputy was trapped with the inmates for about five minutes without immediate access to backup.
Channel 2 reporter Michael Seiden asked Labat whether someone getting onto one of the jail’s elevators today is guaranteed to reach their destination.
“Absolutely not,” Labat said.
The Rice Street Jail has nine elevators: Four are used to transport inmates, one serves medical needs, two are used by attorneys and two serve the kitchen.
Records from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office obtained by Channel 2 Action News show 373 elevator work orders since 2023.
Those records include 101 reports of people becoming trapped in elevators and 77 failures involving the jail’s medical elevator. The records show the average work order took 19 days to complete.
Labat said one recent failure became especially serious after an inmate was stabbed and suffered significant blood loss.
With elevators down, first responders had to carry heavy medical equipment up several flights of stairs to reach the injured inmate.
“A person that was injured, bleeding out, ultimately needed CPR, but may not have needed CPR or extra blood or additional blood had the elevators been working,” Labat told Channel 2 Action News.
Commissioners question timeline
Fulton County commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a $4.4 million contract to modernize the elevators.
But the vote also prompted questions about how urgently the county should treat the problems and why repairs have taken so long.
Commissioner Bob Ellis pointed to the federal consent decree governing conditions at the jail.
“I don’t remember reading anything in the consent decree report about this being a major concern that needed to be addressed, prioritized, etc., related to elevators,” Ellis said.
Commissioner Dana Barrett raised a different concern.
“If it was an emergency and an immediate need, then the timeline is deeply concerning because this was presented to us in August of 2024,” Barrett said.
Commissioners approved $1.65 million in emergency funding for elevator work in August 2024.
County officials said priorities later shifted after the U.S. Department of Justice investigated conditions at the jail. The Justice Department found unconstitutional conditions at the facility, including deteriorating physical conditions that contributed to violence. The county later entered into a federal consent decree with the DOJ to improve conditions at the jail.
The bulk of the newly approved elevator modernization work is not expected to begin until March.
For Labat, that is too long to wait when inmates and employees rely on the elevators every day.
“They are simply putting politics and processes over people, and it needs to stop,” Labat said.
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