In a letter dated April 19, 2023 to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) requested information on inmate deaths and federal funding of the Clayton County Jail, Fulton County Jail, and a jail in Indiana.
In the letter, he specifically asks, since 2019, if the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council reported to the Department of Justice data pertaining to individuals who died while incarcerated at the Clayton County Jail, Fulton County Jail, and the Jackson County Jail in Indiana. Deaths are required to be reported, according to the Death in Custody Reporting Act.
Ossoff questions if the CJCC submitted reports to the DOJ on inmate deaths each quarter since 2019 and, if not, how many quarters did they miss?
He asks if the reports include the cause of death and he asks for copies of all the CJCC’s DCRA submissions to the DOJ since 2019.
Ossoff also asks for a report in the amount of federal funding at each of the facilities since 2013 and a description and purpose of the funding.
Ossoff questions if the U.S. Marshals Service has held federal detainees, either those charged with immigration or felony offenses, at the three jails since 2013.
“The Department of Justice has an affirmative obligation to safeguard the civil rights of incarcerated people, whether they are held in federal, state, or local custody,” Ossoff wrote in the letter. “Additionally, the federal government provides hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to state and local prisons and jails through an array of grant programs, including through the DOJ Bureau of Justice Assistance, and thus has the responsibility to oversee the use of those resources.”
In the letter, Ossoff also writes “last year, the former sheriff (Victor Hill) in Clayton County Georgia was convicted of violating the civil rights of six…
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