ATLANTA — On Tuesday, January 27, 2026, members of the Community Over Cages coalition will hold a joint press conference to release a new ACLU of Georgia report on chronic overcrowding at the Fulton County Jail and to answer media questions. The event will highlight “Jail Overcrowding in Fulton County: Causes, Impacts and Interventions,” the third report in a series examining the jail population and its impact on public health and safety.
The new report builds on findings from 2022 and 2023, and it offers evidence-based recommendations to reduce the population and improve conditions. The report names key drivers of overcrowding, including wealth-based detention, jailing for misdemeanors, delayed indictments, and underuse of diversion programs. Impacts of overcrowding at the jail remain persistent and deadly. Since 2021, 32 people have died in county custody from suicide, violence, and neglect.
WHEN
Tuesday, January 27, 2026, 10 a.m.
WHERE
Near the entrance of the Fulton County Jail
901 Rice Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
WHO
Speakers include:
Christopher Bruce, deputy executive director, ACLU of Georgia:
“Overcrowding at Fulton County Jail has long been a crisis with a cascade of public health and safety problems. In the first seven months of 2025, the jail population rose nearly 20 percent 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.”
Akiva Freidlin, senior staff attorney, ACLU of Georgia:
“This report shows that 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. I have visited people who were incarcerated for their inability to pay amounts as low as $1. In Fulton County and across the state, people are captives in the dungeons of our unjust system. All of us —judges, legislators, prosecutors, and community members — must work together to end this unconscionable practice.”
Mark Spencer, executive director, Stop Criminalization Of Our Patients:
“Health and safety are both products of policy choices. Fulton County must shift investments toward preventative, life-affirming infrastructure and away from its sprawling criminal legal system that further marginalizes and harms many of Fulton's most vulnerable residents.”
Devin Franklin, senior movement policy counsel, Southern Center for Human Rights:
“Fulton County’s predilection toward recycling failed policies and strategies in response to the decades-long crisis at the Fulton County Jail are reflective of an attitude of moral bankruptcy by those with the authority and ability to reverse the pattern of inhumanity and disregard of those individuals subject to the inhumane conditions and cultural neglect forced upon those in Fulton’s custody. Advocates have long pushed for basic reforms to policies and practices that respect the dignity and humanity of individuals subject to pretrial incarceration in Fulton County, and again, this most recent report by the ACLU of Georgia offers substantive solutions where past County efforts have repeatedly failed.”
Robyn Hasan-Simpson, executive director, Women On The Rise:
“Despite clear evidence that diversion programs can safely reduce jail use and connect people to the help they need, Fulton County’s Diversion Center remains dramatically underutilized, leaving people jailed on low-level offenses when they could instead be connected to services in the community.”
Michael Collins, director, Play Fair Atlanta:
"With the World Cup approaching, we will see an estimated 300,000 visitors come to our city. Our concern is that some of these people may end up in Fulton County Jail — a death trap. The slow pace of indictments and lack of diversion use, as the report outlines, coupled with the uptick in people who may not be familiar with our laws, is a recipe for disaster."
ABOUT THE ACLU OF GEORGIA
The ACLU of Georgia enhances and defends the civil liberties and rights of all Georgians through legal action, legislative and community advocacy, and civic education and engagement. For more information, visit acluga.org.
Previously released reports by the ACLU of Georgia can be found here: There Are Better Solutions: An Analysis of Fulton County’s Jail Population (2022) and Breaking the Cycle: Exploring Alternatives to a New Jail (2023). Please contact [email protected] to receive an embargoed copy of the new report before the press conference.
ABOUT COMMUNITIES OVER CAGES
Communities Over Cages is a collection of national and local organizations united in our commitment to decarceration in Atlanta and the fight to end mass criminalization in Fulton County.
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