Fulton County’s sheriff and chief executive emerged from a 90-minute meeting yesterday and said they would stop fighting in the newspapers and work to solve crowding problem at the jail, says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett said the session with Commission Chairwoman Karen Handel was “more productive” than she had expected. The sheriff, a Democrat, said she and Handel, a Republican, discussed options to solve the problem. They included transferring excess prisoners to other jails – a costly proposition.
There are about 2,900 in the main jail and an additional 400 in two jail annexes. The main jail was designed to sleep 2,200.
Earlier this week, Barrett said Handel either was misinformed or has been playing politics with public safety by contending that the jail is adequately funded and by not working to find solutions to the crowding. Handel said Barrett isn’t properly managing her $81 million budget.
Link: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/0304/11jailmeet.html