The Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC) may close down.
Officials spoke during a lengthy meeting on Aug.18 over a four-year agreement 2022 between Atlanta and Fulton Counties allowing the lease of 700 beds in order to prevent overcrowding in jails. However, that agreement has failed, with the city not using all the beds available.
Senior Movement Policy Council Member Devin Franklin said ACDC is inhumane. According to the Southern Center for Human Rights, “The inmates aren’t seen as human.”
“A truthful argument cannot be made for anything other than the fact that it's been harmful,” Franklin said when referring to the ACDC.
Franklin explained that inmates held at the ACDC were convicted of non-violent crimes, shedding light on the failures of the justice system.
“The full year after the lease went into effect, 10 more individuals died, and a lot of these folks were in custody for these low-level, nonviolent offenses,” Franklin said.
The ACDC is an 11-story structure built in 1995, capable of holding 1,300 people.
Despite having an area where prisoners can stay, the ACDC hasn’t helped the jail crisis in Fulton County. Franklin believes elected officials should be held accountable for the issues people experience at the ACDC.
“We cannot continue to allow elected officials to try to solve the incorrect problem,” Franklin said. “They believe that the only problem is that the building is bad. They don't want to address the question of why the building is a bad building, which is because it has not been properly maintained for many years.”
Vice President of State Strategy and Reentry at the Legal Action Center, Roberta Meyers, has also been critical of the ACDC.
“The community has made it very clear that they're more interested in a service hub being created where people can get the services, the human services that they need,” Meyers stated.
Meyers advocates for the health and well-being of people incarcerated or held in custody.
“It all starts with prioritizing people's human dignity,” Meyers, who has advocated for convicted individuals for 30 years, said. “If we continue to allow officials who have oversight of these facilities to look at the people who may end up inside those walls as less than, we will continue to see people die.”
Deaths within the ACDC have been documented. Noni Battiste-Kasoko, a 19-year-old black woman who died at the center in July 2023.
Battiste-Kasoko was held at the center for a misdemeanor, according to a report from 11 Alive.
Op.Gov.ai reached out to the Fulton County Sheriff's office for comment on the inhumane conditions and lack of bed utilization. Sheriff Patrick Labat and his communications team didn't respond.
Meyers believes there should be alternative solutions in the justice system, especially because people aren't detained for long periods.
“At least 95 percent of the people that end up in the prison system are going to come home,” Meyers said. “So why are we not thinking about the fact that we cannot incarcerate our way out of changing lives and putting people on the right trajectory towards success and really keeping our community safe.”
Franklin and Meyers believe Atlanta should end its lease with ACDC.
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