Inside ‘decrepit’ Fulton County Jail – where germaphobe Trump and his 18 co-defendants will be booked: Notorious for scabies outbreaks and ‘unhygienic’ conditions – ex-president must surrender there by next FRIDAY
- The district attorney for Fulton County, Fani Willis, announced on Monday night that Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants must surrender by August 25
- All 19 – among them Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Kanye West’s PR Trevian Kutti – will be booked at the county jail
- The Rice Street, Atlanta, jail was built in 1985 to house around 1,300 inmates but has seen more than 3,000 held at a time: it is infamously dirty and overcrowded
Donald Trump has until next Friday to turn himself in to an Atlanta jail described as ‘unhygienic’ and ‘overcrowded,’ where scabies outbreaks have occurred and several prisoners have been found dead in their cells.
The former president and notorious germaphobe, along with his 18 co-defendants, were indicted on Monday on charges of attempting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election. They were told they had until noon on August 25 to surrender, or else arrest warrants would be issued.
They must surrender to Fulton County jail on Rice Street in Atlanta – a facility built in 1985, which many say now needs to be demolished.
Footage from inside the jail shows the horrible conditions of broken equipment, filthy halls and trash strew throughout the area.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat said officials will follow ‘normal practices’ when processing Trump. That would usually include fingerprinting, handcuffing and a booking photo.
Donald Trump, pictured on Sunday, has until August 25 to turn himself in to the notoriously decrepit Atlanta jail
The Fulton County jail, on Rice Street, is so run down that local sheriffs are demanding it be refurbished
The 1,300-person facility has housed more than double that number, with some sleeping on the floors
It is unclear if that will normal procedures at the Fulton County jail will happen for Trump. The Georgia indictment is his fourth, and so far none have taken his mugshot, arguing that he is sufficiently well known. He has also not been cuffed.
That has not stopped his campaign from fundraising with photoshopped fake mugshots.
Trump is also unlikely to spend time in the jail itself, which is intended to house 1,300 inmates, but has held more than 3,000 people in recent years.
‘It’s essentially been overcrowded since it was built,’ said Fallon McClure of the ACLU of Georgia.
‘This has just been a perpetual cycle over and over for years.’
The Southern Center for Human Rights said the site provides ‘unhygienic living conditions’ that have led to outbreaks of COVID-19, lice and scabies.
It found inmates were ‘significantly malnourished’, the BBC reported, and dealing with a condition called cachexia, also known as wasting syndrome.
Several prisoners have died in recent months – among them a 34-year-old man was found unconscious in a medical unit cell last week.
Last month, a 19-year-old woman, Noni Battiste-Kosoko, died in Fulton County jail custody – although she was held at a different site.
In September 2022, Lashawn Thompson died after being housed in the jail in conditions akin to a ‘torture chamber,’ his attorneys said.
Pat Labat, the local sheriff, said officials will follow ‘normal practices’ when processing Trump. That would usually include fingerprinting, handcuffing and a booking photo
Footage from inside the jail shows the horrible conditions of broken equipment, filthy halls and trash strew throughout the area
Trump is also unlikely to spend time in the jail itself
Noni Battiste-Kosoko, 19, died in Fulton County jail custody in July this year
Lashawn Thompson, 35, died inside the jail’s psychiatric ward in September 2022
Thompson, 35, had been housed in the jail’s psychiatric ward for three months when he died.
The independent medical review listed ‘untreated decompensated schizophrenia’ as a contributing cause to the death, in addition to dehydration, malnutrition and severe body insect infestation, which included lice and bed bugs.
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office itself said the building is ‘dilapidated and rapidly eroding’, and is seeking the construction of a new $1.7 billion jail.
McClure, of the ACLU, said she had little faith that the jail would be refurbished.
‘There’s been a lot of talk of cleaning it up,’ she said.
‘We have not really seen or heard anything particularly significant. It seems like a lot of posturing.’
The jail is well known for overcrowding and insanitary conditions
Trump and his co-defendants are not expected to spend time in the cells, where many languish for months
The Southern Center for Human Rights said the site provides ‘unhygienic living conditions’ that have led to outbreaks of COVID-19, lice and scabies
She said that the drain on resources provided by the Trump case also contributed to the backlog in the jail.
In September 2022, an ACLU report found 117 people had waited in jail for more than a year because they had not been indicted; 12 had been held for two years for the same reason.
‘There’s the assumption that other cases aren’t getting indicted because this is taking up so much time,’ she said.
Trump on Tuesday demanded the case be delayed until after the November 2024 election.
Fani Willis, the prosecutor, said on Monday the timeline was up to the judge.
Her office indicted Trump on state charges, meaning that – unlike federal charges – he will not be able to dismiss them even if he wins the election.
Trump has routinely insisted the charges are politically-motivated, and called the indictment a witch hunt.
Donald Trump is seen in a Truth Social clip he posted on Tuesday afternoon, his first video post since being indicted in Georgia
The sprawling 98-page indictment listed 19 defendants and 41 criminal counts in all.
All the defendants were charged with racketeering, which is used to target members of organized crime groups and carries a minimum penalty of five years in prison.
Trump was charged with 13 of the 41 counts: if convicted on all charges, he faces more than 70 years in prison.
Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and John Eastman were among those charged.
‘Rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result,’ Willis said at a press conference just before midnight.
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