Former federal prosecutors Francey Hakes and Jay Town told Newsmax on Monday that Attorney General Merrick Garland should close the Fulton County jail following the fifth death of an inmate there since July 31.
On July 13, the Department of Justice said it was opening an investigation into the facility following allegations an inmate died covered in insects and filth, the jail is structurally unsafe, that prevalent violence has resulted in serious injuries and homicides, and that officers are being prosecuted for using excessive force.
Hakes and Town each said the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment for prisoners, is being violated at the jail.
"This same jail has been under the receivership of a federal judge before in the past, two other times," Hakes, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the northern district of Georgia, told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "So, two other times conditions in this jail were such that they violated the Eighth Amendment and a federal judge put himself in charge and mandated changes so that conditions would improve.
"Clearly, it didn't take, or it's just gotten back to being the same old bad place."
Town said when he was the U.S. attorney for the northern district of Alabama, he brought a case against all the male prisons in that state based on Eighth amendment violations.
"DOJ has every right to go for an immediate injunction in federal court to have all inmates in the Fulton County jail removed to other facilities, whether it be the Atlanta city jail or other surrounding counties," Town said. "Or they can even have people serving time serve them in [another] male prison in Georgia. They have every right to do that and really have an obligation to do it because, clearly, Eighth Amendment rights are being violated on a minute-to-minute basis.
"It clearly is a physically violent place. It is a totally unsanitary facility and who knows about the sexual violence. I haven't heard about that yet, but you can guarantee there's some of that going on, too. Merrick Garland really has an obligation to take action now and not let this play out over the course of years in litigation."
Hakes said there could be one reason why Garland won't shut the jail down now, and it involves the pending criminal trial of former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants over allegations they tried to subvert the state's 2020 election results.
"I can only think that Merrick Garland's decision not to step in at this point has something to do with the Trump case and not wanting to disrupt [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis," Hakes said.
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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