Justice Department enters consent decree with Fulton County over jail conditions

The U.S. Justice Department announced that it has entered into a court-enforceable agreement with Georgia’s most populous county after finding that violence and filthy conditions in county lockups violated the constitutional rights of people held in jail. The agency said in a news release that the proposed consent decree must still be approved by a judge but would resolve problems found by Justice Department investigators. The Justice Department in July 2023 opened a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in Fulton County, citing violence, filthy living quarters and the in-custody death of a man whose body was found covered in insects.