The Fulton County Jail where former President Donald Trump, together with 18 other co-defendants — including his former attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — are expected to show themselves in, is currently undergoing an investigation into its dangerous conditions.
Sources tell The Post that District Attorney Fani Willis has plans to maintain Trump in considered one of the holding cells while being processed — something that Trump’s lawyers are wanting to barter early next week before the previous president agrees to show himself in.
“Secret Service has an obligation to guard the president and with this jails record of inmate treatment up to now, there’s just no possible way they might allow that. This is one other humiliation ritual and political theater attempt by a corrupt prosecution,” the insider told The Post.
Last month, the justice department launched a federal civil rights investigation after several complaints arose.
The facility was described by the county’s sheriff’s office as “dilapidated and rapidly eroding.”
“People in prisons and jails are entitled to basic protections of their civil rights,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press release. “We launched this investigation into the Fulton County Jail based on serious allegations of unsafe, unsanitary living conditions on the jail, excessive force and violence inside the jail, discrimination against incarcerated individuals with mental health issues, and failure to offer adequate medical care to incarcerated individuals.”
The move comes after 35-year-old Lashawn Thompson, whose family claimed was affected by mental illness, had died within the jail in September 2022 after he was found eaten alive and covered by bed bugs.
“They put that man in that cell, left him there to die, and that’s exactly what happened,” the family’s attorney, Michael Harper, told WABE.
An independent autopsy cited his reason for death was from “Complications attributable to Severe Neglect,” with “Untreated Decompensated Schizophrenia” as a contributing cause.
Thompson was the seventh person to die within the custody of Fulton County last 12 months. The facility also endured 11 fires, 534 fights, 114 stabbings and at the very least two murders.
“It’s rougher in here than in prison. I just did six years in prison, and I never got stabbed,” Domence Flannigan told Atlanta Magazine in July while sitting in a jail cell in Fulton County, nursing 35 stab wounds.
As of May, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office employed 403 officers, with 132 posted on the jail. The jail is 40 officers wanting full staffing, a spokesperson told the outlet.
Fulton county jail was first opened back in 1985 to deal with about 1,300 inmates. But it has a history of overcrowding, and has held greater than 3,000 people without delay.
Last 12 months, greater than 450 inmates needed to sleep on the ground attributable to overcrowding.
According to the Fulton County Sheriff’s office, the jail holds seven floors with two towers (north and south). There are a complete of 1,322 cells.
“Expect an alarm for wake-up at about six within the morning, and next they’ll do roll call,” a former prisoner from the Prison Handbook stated. “Next, you’ll have breakfast. When you finish eating breakfast you’ll have to work in this system that has been assigned to you. This could possibly be working within the kitchen, laundry, or some kind of manufacturing job. While this may occasionally seem tedious, it might allow you to once you leave jail, as you’re gaining experience in a certain field of labor.”
“Other inmates go to high school, while some participate in mandated treatment programs. After lunch, there can be one other roll call, then back to work. Your evening can be spent either in your cell or a typical room. During this time dinner is served and also you can be expected to take a shower.”
“After one other roll call, it’s lights out. Even though you can be confined to your cell, there could also be enough light to read or write letters,” it ends. “Then again, most inmates welcome lights out, and take a look at to get as much sleep as they’ll.”
The Fulton County sheriff has since fielded a slew of requests for the jail to be completely demolished attributable to its poor conditions.
Trump, 77, and his 18 co-defendants, in an unprecedented case, have been accused of breaking criminal laws within the Georgia 2020 election case under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also generally known as RICO.
In a Thursday interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business, Trump dismissed the costs as a “witch hunt” and a “horrible thing for the country.”
