The sheriff’s office has reported four deaths at the Fulton County Jail this year, but autopsy reports show at least a fifth, Rodney Wilson, whose death was classified as an accident by the medical examiner.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said they were “not familiar” with Wilson and didn’t answer why a report wasn’t issued. Wilson’s autopsy was obtained through an open records request.
Fulton jail attack leaves woman on life support
The family of Tyriana Ledbetter recently faced a similar issue with the sheriff’s office failing to contact them immediately after she was allegedly attacked by another incarcerated woman at the Fulton County Jail on Oct. 1, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
The 20-year-old, who her family says has mental disabilities, had been incarcerated in Fulton County since late May on multiple charges, including armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Online court records show she was scheduled to appear for a final plea hearing in January, but is now on life support, and her family has launched a GoFundMe to help pay her medical bills. They say she’s become “another tragic example” of failed oversight.
“Tyriana’s family trusted the system to protect her,” the page states. “Because of her mental disabilities, she should never have been placed in a dangerous environment like that. Yet, the warnings were ignored, and now this young woman’s life has been forever changed.”
Federal consent decree meant to improve Fulton jail conditions
Ten months ago, Fulton County and the sheriff’s office entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice to prevent a lawsuit and improve jail conditions.
It followed a civil rights investigation that largely focused on the death of Lashawn Thompson in 2022 and his family’s release of photos showing his body in a bedbug-infested cell in the psychiatric wing of the Fulton County Jail. The family’s attorney, Ben Crump, later said a private autopsy confirmed Thompson died from pure neglect.
Devin Franklin, senior movement policy counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights, has been pushing local law enforcement and governments to utilize the new Center for Diversion and Services in Atlanta, which allows people who are accused of low-level offenses to get help with housing, mental health and substance abuse issues instead of going to jail.
He’s also spoken out against Fulton County’s plan to build a 3,200-bed “special purpose facility” to house detainees with mental health issues and renovate its long-troubled Rice Street jail for $1.1 billion.
While the sheriff has also criticized the plan, Franklin’s concerns are that it requires more Fulton County detainees to be transferred to the Atlanta City Detention Center, where they would remain under the supervision of the sheriff’s office, and the agency’s “inhumane practices” would carry over.
“I had not heard about the death of Mr. Wilson,” Franklin said in an email on Thursday. “[But] the sheriff’s office’s collective aloofness is not surprising. They have long demonstrated that their primary concern is the expansion of their carceral capacity and that they do not care about the actual well-being of detained persons.”
Reports reveal quality of care behind bars
According to the medical examiner, Wilson suffered a cardiac arrest after he fell and hit the back of his head inside the Fulton County Jail on July 18. He was then transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, but died two days later, when Wilson’s family “elected to withdraw life-sustaining treatment.” He was 49.
“An incident report issued by the Fulton County Jail indicates that Mr. Wilson fell and hit his head after receiving prescribed medication,” Wilson’s autopsy report states. “No interaction with another person was documented.”
The report goes on to say that Wilson was a resident of Miami and had been incarcerated at the Fulton jail following a physical altercation that occurred locally. Wilson reportedly suffered from different health conditions, including hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
“At the time of this report,” it states, “it was unclear whether the fall had been witnessed or precisely where within the jail the incident took place.”
Other detainees who have died while in custody this year are: Judas Wilson, 47; Cef Green III, 25; Shon Disola, 53; and Benjamin Pike, 55. All but one were people of color.
Two of their deaths were classified by the medical examiner as suicides, though their autopsy reports note they had previously been diagnosed with either schizophrenia or autism and ADHD. The other two deaths were classified as natural, because the detainees suffered from diabetes and hypertensive cardiovascular disease. And like Wilson, some of them died while being treated at the hospital, not at the jail.
Disola was a LifeLink Foundation organ donor, according to his investigative report.
Last year, four deaths were recorded at the Fulton jail, compared to 10 in 2023. However, so far, the deadliest year has been 2022, when 15 people died while in custody.
Kathleen Kenney, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the implementation of the federal consent decree, recently visited the jail. Afterward, she said improving the jail’s severe understaffing, housing and classification systems, and safety and medical care should be prioritized.
A previous consent decree was in place at the jail from 2006 until 2015, aiming to address similar problems.
