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The Fulton County Jail where former President Donald Trump, along with 18 other co-defendants — including his former attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — are expected to turn themselves in, is currently undergoing an investigation into its dangerous conditions.
Sources tell The Post that District Attorney Fani Willis has plans to keep Trump in one of the holding cells while being processed — something that Trump’s lawyers are wanting to negotiate early next week before the former president agrees to turn himself in.
“Secret Service has a duty to protect the president and with this jails record of inmate treatment in the past, there is just no possible way they would allow that. This is another humiliation ritual and political theater attempt by a corrupt prosecution,” the insider told The Post.
Last month, the justice department launched a federal civil rights investigation after several complaints arose.
The facility was described by the county’s sheriff’s office as “dilapidated and rapidly eroding.”
“People in prisons and jails are entitled to basic protections of their civil rights,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “We launched this investigation into the Fulton County Jail based on serious allegations of unsafe, unsanitary living conditions at the jail, excessive force and violence within the jail, discrimination against incarcerated individuals with mental health issues, and failure to provide adequate medical care to incarcerated individuals.”
The move comes after 35-year-old Lashawn Thompson, whose family claimed was suffering from mental illness, had died in the jail in September 2022 after he was found eaten alive and covered by bed bugs.
“They put that man in that cell, left him there to die, and that’s exactly what happened,” the family’s attorney, Michael Harper, told WABE.
An independent autopsy cited his cause of death was from “Complications due to Severe Neglect,” with “Untreated Decompensated Schizophrenia” as a contributing cause.
Thompson was the seventh person to die in the custody of Fulton County last year. The facility also endured 11 fires, 534 fights, 114 stabbings and at least two murders.
“It’s rougher in here than in prison. I just did six years in prison, and I never got stabbed,” Domence Flannigan told Atlanta Magazine in July while sitting in a jail cell in Fulton County, nursing 35 stab wounds.
As of May, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office employed 403 officers, with 132 posted at the jail. The jail is 40 officers short of full staffing, a spokesperson told the outlet.
Fulton county jail was first opened back in 1985 to house about 1,300 inmates. But it has a history of overcrowding, and has held more than 3,000 people at once.
Last year, more than 450 inmates had to sleep on the floor due to overcrowding.
According to the Fulton County Sheriff’s office, the jail holds seven floors with two towers (north and south). There are a total of 1,322 cells.
“Expect an alarm for wake-up at about six in the morning, and next they’ll do roll call,” a former prisoner from the Prison Handbook stated. “Next, you will have breakfast. When you finish eating breakfast you will have to work in the program that has been assigned to you. This could be working in the kitchen, laundry, or some sort of manufacturing job. While this may seem tedious, it may help you when you leave jail, as you are gaining experience in a certain field of work.”
“Other inmates go to school, while some take part in mandated treatment programs. After lunch, there will be another roll call, then back to work. Your evening will be spent either in your cell or a common room. During this time dinner is served and you will be expected to take a shower.”
“After another roll call, it’s lights out. Even though you will be confined to your cell, there may be enough light to read or write letters,” it ends. “Then again, most inmates welcome lights out, and try to get as much sleep as they can.”
The Fulton County sheriff has since fielded a slew of requests for the jail to be completely demolished due to its poor conditions.
Trump, 77, and his 18 co-defendants, in an unprecedented case, have been accused of breaking criminal laws in the Georgia 2020 election case under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as RICO.
In a Thursday interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business, Trump dismissed the charges as a “witch hunt” and a “horrible thing for the country.”