JONESBORO — In less than two months, two Clayton County Jail inmates lost their lives when they were attacked by cellmates.
In November, Carlos Zegarra-Arroyo was allegedly beaten to death by Jaquez Jackson in what was described as a racially-motivated incident. Zegarra-Arroyo had been in jail on non-violent changes and was unable to pay a $12,000 bond.
In January, Johnathan Pettigrew, 27, was scheduled to be released from the jail within days but was killed allegedly by Adbul Woodward.
One of the factors in the increased violence is overcrowding as the jail has capacity for about 1,500 inmates but there are about 1,900 currently being housed in the aging facility. About 400 inmates are having to sleep on the floor as there is a shortage of available beds.
“Anytime you have people in a small confined space, you’re going to have disagreements, and you can expect that you’re going to have some fights,” Clayton County Sheriff Levon Allen said in a Jan. 11 interview. “When you compound these issues with overcrowding, it makes it heightened or makes those numbers go up.”
He said the incidents in November and January didn’t happen in the day room where there’s more space but in the cells — where conditions are cramped, to say the least.
The cells are designed for two people in bunk beds, but there are sometimes three people to a cell. If there are three people in the cell, that means someone is sleeping on the floor between the toilet and wall.
“Anytime you have someone getting up to go to the restroom, you’re going to have an argument,” Allen said. “Anytime you have someone who wants to sit down and look out the window — because you only have one window that faces the outside — if they want to look at that, they have to walk over or step over someone sleeping on the floor, and that can cause an array of…
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