On Thursday, it is anticipated that former President Donald Trump will turn himself in at the jail in Georgia’s most populated county, an overcrowded facility with a history of violence and abuse that has sparked a federal probe into its working conditions.
When Trump is arrested on suspicion of allegedly conspiring to rig Georgia’s 2020 election, he will be freed from the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, also known as the Rice Street jail.
This is not always how criminal defendants are handled. Others have been there for months or perhaps years before being charged.
Here is a glance at the prison and what Trump would go through if he surrenders:
HOW COULD TRUMP’S BOOKING LOOK?
Defendants often go through a security checkpoint when they enter the premises before checking in for formal booking in the lobby.
According to lawyer Michael Harper, who saw the facility several years ago and has filed numerous cases regarding inmate deaths that took place there, they are transported into a big, open room with stations for fingerprints, mugshots, and medical examinations.
Usually, a large number of defendants are being booked in the room at any given moment, together with jail employees and guards. Trump’s security requirements make that possibly improbable at this moment.
It’s a sizable, crowded place, Harper added.
The jail houses inmates who are charged with a variety of offenses, from misdemeanors to violent crimes, around the clock.
Trump will be handled similarly to other offenders, Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat stated earlier this month.
However, the former president, who continues to be under 24-hour Secret Service protection, might get some perks for security concerns. Trump hasn’t worn handcuffs during detention at previous court appearances in federal courts in Miami and Washington, D.C., as well as a state court in New York. Additionally, officials used pictures of the former president instead of making him stand for a mugshot.
That may make his booking in Atlanta different.
The mugshot for you will be ready regardless of your status, Labat said at a news conference in August. “Unless someone tells me alternatively, we are following our normal practices,” Labat added.
WHAT IS THE LOCATION OF THE JAIL AND CAN PEOPLE SEE TRUMP?
On the west side of Atlanta, the jail is a few miles from the city’s center. It is located in a neighborhood with a mix of warehouses and residential construction across from a sizable new park.
When Trump turns himself in, there will be a “hard lockdown” of the area around the jail, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office stated in a news release on Monday. That probably indicates that nobody will be able to approach.
Trump is not currently scheduled to appear in court on Thursday. Contrary to other jurisdictions, arraignments in Fulton County, where a defendant first appears in court, are typically scheduled following the completion of the booking procedure.
WHY IS THE JAIL IN TROUBLE?
Early this year, the 1989-built Fulton County Jail housed more than 3,200 people, far more than its intended 2,700-person capacity.
For 12 years, Devin Franklin served as a public defender in Fulton County. He said his clients frequently claimed that guards opened cell doors to allow for attacks.
He said, “They would call it popping the doors.”
Franklin recalls assisting a 17-year-old who claimed he had to battle other inmates at the facility to get food.
According to lawyers, stabbings happen frequently, and medical attention is subpar. In the previous month, three prisoners who were discovered inactive in their cells at the facility—two of them in a medical unit—died.
Following Lashawn Thompson’s murder in the facility last year, whose body was discovered covered in insects, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed earlier this year that it had launched a civil rights inquiry into the conditions there. Officials cited violence, filthy conditions, and Thompson’s death.
Labat has urged the county to provide funding for a new jail. Franklin said that too many low-level offenders are being detained for an excessive amount of time because they are unable to pay their bond and the district attorney’s office is taking too long to request grand jury indictments.
Franklin stated, “They have so many individuals in custody who shouldn’t be there, especially when you know you can’t keep them safe.
WHAT ARE TRUMP’S COMMENTS ON THE JAIL?
Trump said in a fundraising email that the institution has been called a “violent jail” and a “humanitarian crisis.” He claimed that the decaying jail walls had been turned into shanks by the guards.
In March, the sheriff’s office reported that more than 200 handmade knives were discovered during a “shakedown” by law enforcement.
In a statement at the time, Labat said that “inmates are literally making shanks out of the deteriorating walls of the dilapidated facility.”