In 2020 when Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat campaigned to be sheriff of Georgia’s most populated county, he committed to addressing several key areas.
Those areas included: public safety, crime reduction, improving jail conditions, increasing mental health services, expanding reentry programs and reviewing the sheriff’s office use-of-force policies.
Roughly one year after being elected as one of Fulton County’s top law enforcement officers and 7 months on the job, Sheriff Labat was a guest on Tuesday’s edition of “Closer Look.”
He talked with show host Rose Scott about how the sheriff’s office is working to tackle the focus areas he promised to address during his campaign trail amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
An Atlanta building, barely a quarter-century old, stands tall on the cities south side. But it s the history and the communities battle over the building that casts an even bigger shadow.
Built in the 90s as Atlanta won the bid to host the Olympics, the Atlanta City Detention Center made national headlines.
It was made to house low-risk individuals who violate city ordinances. Around the same time, the city passed an ordinance that made loitering a new punishable offense.
The community pushed back saying it was a way to penalize the homeless population and rid the city streets of them.
Fulton County’s new sheriff has announced he wants to buy Atlanta’s mostly empty jail and begin housing more inmates there.
It’s a proposal that would upend promises by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and a notable departure from the momentum that’s been building for years to close Atlanta’s City Detention Center.
“This is an opportunity for the city to get out of the jail business and the sheriff’s office to do what we do,” Sheriff Patrick Labat, who ran Atlanta’s jail for the last ten years, told WABE.
He was a member of a task force Mayor Bottoms asked to come up with recommendations on the future of the jail.