ATLANTA — Members of the Community Over Cages coalition will hold a press conference Tuesday to release a new report from the ACLU of Georgia, documenting chronic overcrowding at the Fulton County Jail and outlining policy changes aimed at reducing the jail population and improving conditions.
The report, Jail Overcrowding in Fulton County: Causes, Impacts, and Interventions, is the third in a series produced by the ACLU of Georgia examining jail conditions and population trends in Fulton County. The findings build on earlier reports from 2022 and 2023, which documented similar drivers of overcrowding and warned that conditions at the jail were worsening.
According to the report, overcrowding at the jail has remained severe despite years of warnings and reform proposals. Since 2021, 32 people have died in Fulton County custody due to suicide, violence and medical neglect. The report notes that jail population levels have continued to rise, increasing nearly 20% in the first seven months of 2025 alone.
Christopher Bruce, deputy executive director of the ACLU of Georgia, said overcrowding at the Fulton County Jail has become a public health and safety crisis. “Overcrowding at Fulton County Jail has long been a crisis with a cascade of public health and safety problems,” Bruce said. “In the first seven months of 2025, the jail population rose nearly 20%, and four people died in custody. These tragedies underscore the urgent need for prosecutors, judges, law enforcement, and other officials to address the systemic drivers of overcrowding.”
The report also emphasizes the role of wealth-based detention in keeping hundreds of people incarcerated on any given day. Akiva Freidlin, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Georgia, said many people remain jailed for weeks or months solely because they cannot afford bail, sometimes in amounts as low as $1. “On any given day, hundreds of people are locked up in Fulton County Jail because they can’t afford to pay for their release, often for weeks or months,” Freidlin said. He described the practice as fundamentally unjust and called on judges, legislators, prosecutors and community members to work together to end it.
Advocates say overcrowding has consequences beyond the jail walls. Mark Spencer, executive director of Stop Criminalization of Our Patients, said policy decisions shape health and safety outcomes. “Health and safety are both products of policy choices,” Spencer said, urging Fulton County to shift investments away from incarceration and toward preventative, life-affirming community infrastructure.
The report also criticizes the county’s reliance on policies that advocates say have repeatedly failed. Devin Franklin, senior movement policy counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights, said Fulton County’s response to the overcrowding crisis reflects “a pattern of recycling failed policies” and demonstrates “a disregard for the dignity and humanity of people held in custody.” Franklin said the report offers concrete solutions that advocates have been pushing for over years of reform efforts.
One area of concern highlighted in the report is the underuse of diversion programs. Robyn Hasan-Simpson, executive director of Women on the Rise, said Fulton County’s Diversion Center remains “dramatically underutilized,” despite evidence that diversion can safely reduce jail populations and connect people to services in the community.
Advocates also raised concerns about future pressures on the jail system. Michael Collins, director of Play Fair Atlanta, pointed to the upcoming World Cup and an expected influx of visitors to the city. He warned that slow indictment processes and limited diversion options could worsen jail overcrowding and increase the risk of harm.
The press conference will take place Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, near the entrance of the Fulton County Jail on Rice Street. Members of the Community Over Cages coalition and partner organizations will be available to discuss the report’s findings and recommendations.
The ACLU of Georgia said it will provide embargoed copies of the report to members of the media ahead of the event.
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