The Detention Center
Fulton County Jail
- Operated byFulton County Sheriff's Office
- Main jail address901 Rice St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
- Marietta Annex781 Marietta Blvd., Atlanta, GA 30318
- South Annex Jail6500 Watson Street, Union City, GA 30291 (listed on county jail page)
- Fulton County Jail (Downtown)254 Peachtree St SW, Atlanta, GA 30303 (listed on sheriff jail page)
- CommandCommanded by the Chief Jailer (not named); two divisions, Administration and Operations
- DOJ consent decreeCounty page: 'Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice to improve conditions at the Fulton County Jail'; FY2026 budget says the County entered the agreement in January 2025
- Consent-decree spendingCounty says it invested $12.8 million in consent-decree related matters in 2025; 2026 budget includes more than $50 million to address jail related concerns
- Jail constructionFY2026 proposed budget: $10,000,000 for debt service on jail construction costs (temporary housing to replace housing capacity at the Atlanta Detention Center)
- Rated capacityNot found
Source: Fulton County Sheriff's Office — Jail · checked 2026-09-29
Transparency rating
6/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✓How to post bond
- ✓Phone, video and commissary rates
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot found
Since then
- FY2026 proposed budget funds debt service for jail construction (temporary housing to replace capacity at the Atlanta Detention Center)
The Sheriff
Sheriff Patrick "Pat" Labat
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office operates the Fulton County Jail (FCJ), 'commanded by the Chief Jailer'
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- In office sinceSworn in January 1, 2021, as the 28th Sheriff of Fulton County
- Office sizeAbout 875 employees; annual budget exceeding $143 million (per sheriff's page)
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Fulton County Sheriff's Office — Our Sheriff · checked 2026-09-29
The Judges
Georgia's superior court judges are elected state judges who hear felony cases. For most charges a county magistrate sets bail soon after arrest; for the most serious felonies only a superior court judge can.
Who sets bail in Fulton County
- Superior Court: the Atlanta Judicial Circuit, which serves Fulton County alone. Superior court judges are elected circuit-wide in nonpartisan elections to four-year terms and hear felony cases; for the most serious felonies only a superior court judge can set bail.
- Magistrate Court: the Fulton County Magistrate Court. For most charges a magistrate sets bail soon after arrest.
Still needed
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-29
The Board of Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe county budget that funds the sheriff's office and the jail, and the jail building itself. Some small counties have a sole commissioner; consolidated governments such as Athens-Clarke, Augusta-Richmond, Columbus and Macon-Bibb have a commission instead.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. By law the sheriff is the jailer of the county and appoints the other jailers, subject to the governing authority's supervision (O.C.G.A. 42-4-1). No state agency inspects the jail.
- NoteFY2026 proposed budget names the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, 141 Pryor Street SW, Atlanta.
- The boardFulton County Board of Commissioners
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- Sheriff site fcsoga.org and county site fultoncountyga.gov opened; Fulton County, Georgia confirmed.
- Roster: sheriff's jail page links 'Inmate Search' to portal-gafulton.tylertech.cloud (PAJailManager); our reader was refused (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED) when opening the portal itself.
- PREA page posts zero-tolerance and investigation policies and a 2023 Annual PREA Report (https://fcsoga.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Annual-PREA-Report-2023.pdf).
- Bond page: cash, property, professional bondsman and pretrial release explained; $20.00 non-refundable bond fee per bond instrument; Bonding Administration at 185 Central Avenue, Atlanta.
- Fees (county jail page): video visitation $0.25 per minute via ICSolutions; voicemail $0.25; deposits $5–$200, online fees from $2.95, phone from $4.00, lobby kiosk cash $4.00. Phone/video provider switched from Securus to ICSolutions effective May 15, 2024.
- FY2026 proposed budget: Sheriff Office $157.9 million all funds; General Fund lines '3302 - Jail' $95,892,022.01 and '3311 - Jail (No JP)' $13,632,445.00; $31,843,000 for Board approved consent decree contractual and operational items.
- County news release (Feb 20, 2026) is the one-year update on the DOJ jail consent decree: https://www.fultoncountyga.gov/News/2026/02/20/Fulton-County-Issues-Jail-Consent-Decree-One-Year-Investment-Update. It says the 2026 General Fund includes $233.7 million for the Sheriff's Office and other jail-related costs.
- Sheriff press releases list includes a January 2026 item on flooding at the Rice Street Jail; no deaths-in-custody record, inspection report, capacity figure or contract document found on the pages opened.
- Chief Jailer is not named on the jail, divisions or executive team pages.
- Commission agendas/minutes URL not opened.
- What was tried: fcsoga.org home, jail, prea, services/bond, our-sheriff, executive-team, divisions, press-releases, georgia-hb1105-quarterly-reports; fultoncountyga.gov Sheriff/Jail page, consent-decree news release, FY2026 proposed budget PDF; one WebSearch limited to fultoncountyga.gov and fcsoga.org.
- State inspection/oversight: Georgia law makes the sheriff the county's jailer. The Georgia Sheriffs' Association, an association of the state's sheriffs rather than a state agency, publishes jail standards and a statewide monthly jail report.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Fulton County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for the jail, and the judges who set bail.
Names verified 2026-09-29 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered