The ACLU of Georgia and community partners gathered this week to host the candidates for Fulton County sheriff as part of our Know Your Sheriff campaign. The town hall provided attendees an opportunity to meet the candidates and hear where they stand on the issues.
Watch the recording of the Know Your Sheriff Fulton County Town hall event
Candidates Kirt Beasley, James "JT" Brown, Joyce Farmer, and Charles Rambo, as well as incumbent Patrick Labat, faced tough questions about the cost and operations of the sheriff’s office and the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the Fulton County Jail. Moderator Rohit Malhotra, Founder & Executive Director of the Center for Civic Innovation, pressed the candidates to provide specifics about solutions. Perhaps most revealing, each candidate except incumbent Labat said they do not support the construction of a new, nearly $2 billion jail.
“We want the community to understand that judges, district attorneys, and sheriffs are their elected officials and have a role to play in solving this mass incarceration crisis. And as long as we don't (address the crisis), the criminal legal system undoes the gains of the civil rights movement. Right here, in the heart of the civil rights movement, we should not have a criminal legal system that perpetuates the second class citizenship that our forebears fought so hard to eliminate,” ACLU of Georgia Executive Director Andrea Young told the crowd.
A special thanks to our media partner Capital B News, and community partners: Center for Civic Innovation, Southern Center for Human Rights, Working Families Power, Changing the Face of Justice, Black Male Initiative (BMI) Georgia, Black Men Build, 100 Black Men of Atlanta Inc., Eta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., and Gate City Bar Association.
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