By Rhonda Cook, Johnny Edwards
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Though he recently noted that Fulton County was meeting court mandates for its jail, U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob now has given Fulton County two weeks to explain why it has a hiring freeze at the lockup in violation of a consent decree that resolved a 2004 lawsuit.
Shoob’s order, filed late Monday, was one sentence: “The court orders the Fulton County defendants to file a report . . . explaining their failure to comply with the consent decree’s ban on a hiring ‘freeze’ . . . and describing the actions they plan to take to correct this failure.”
Late last month, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he may not push the county to build a new jail and he may lift federal oversight of the jail within the next year. A report from his jail expert apparently has him concerned.
Calvin Lightfoot complained in a quarterly report filed Friday that the sheriff must “submit a form to unfreeze jail positions” to fill vacancies. Lightfoot wrote that the procedure the county was requiring and the time it takes to get new jail staff in position “indicates” the commissioners are violating the portion of the decree concerning staffing.
Fulton County Commissioner Bill Edwards is frustrated by the latest order.
“We continue to do what is asked of us, and it’s getting to be a little tiresome,” he said.
A lawsuit was filed in 2004 outlining crowded and dirty conditions that made Fulton County’s jail dangerous. An agreement in 2006 to settle the suit required millions of dollars in renovations, capped the inmate population, set staffing levels and banned any freeze on hiring to fill vacant positions.
But Lightfoot’s report filed on Friday again raised concerns about staffing and the hiring freeze that has been in place for about a year.
“Staffing mandated posts has been difficult,” Lightfoot wrote. “Although the Fulton County government has levied a hiring freeze on all Fulton County departments for budgetary shortfall reasons, the consent decree mandates that the Fulton Board of Commissioners shall not ‘freeze’ or otherwise prevent the filling of positions presently authorized for security staff at the jail.”
Lightfoot wrote that the sheriff had returned $4.3 million saved last year because of unfilled positions. The commissioners have cut the Sheriff’s Office’s 2012 budget $2.5 million. “They justified this reduction by anticipating salary savings for 2012,” Lightfoot wrote. “The only way to get such a sum is to continue the freeze, thus continuing to intentionally be out of compliance.”
There are supposed to be at least three officers assigned to each cellblock. Lightfoot wrote that there have been times when only one officer was assigned to posts that required three.
Commissioner Liz Hausmann said the Sheriff’s Office, the district attorney’s office, judges’ offices and other public safety departments shouldn’t have to go through the same rigmarole as other departments when they need to fill positions, so long as they stay within their budgets and operate effectively.
“To me, this does highlight a problem,” Hausmann said. “This is not a good business practice.”
Copyright 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution