Long-standing health and safety issues plague Atlanta jail where Trump was booked

Chamian Cruz:

Yes, so this has happened — this has been happening for years.

But the family of a 35-year-old man — his name is Lashawn Thompson — actually launched the complaint that a lot of people have probably heard about by now. He was being held at the Fulton County Jail for three months. He was in the psychiatric ward of the facility, and he was there for just three months waiting on a hearing.

He had not yet been convicted. And according to an incident report that I saw, he was found unresponsive in his cell face down in the toilet, and completely covered in bedbugs. An independent autopsy later found that he had been severely neglected and that he had not been receiving the care or the medicine that he needed to treat his mental health condition.

After that case came to light, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it was launching its investigation into living conditions at the jail. And case — after this case came to light, the county actually spent about $5 million this year to try to improve conditions at the jail.

But it's just been — as the sheriff says, it's just been a Band-Aid. Nothing has really been done to relieve the overcrowding, other than also just, like, renting out bed space in other counties and things like that. But these issues are still happening, still going on.

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