Justice Department should investigate beatings at Georgia jail, attorney says

In this image made from Camden County, Ga., Detention Center surveillance video provided by attorney Harry Daniels, jailers beat detainee Jarrett Hobbs at the facility in Georgia, Sept. 3, 2022. On Wednesday, May 17, 2023, a grand jury in Georgia indicted three former sheriff’s officers in the beating of Hobbs, a Black jail detainee, that was recorded by security cameras. (Camden County Detention Center/Courtesy of Attorney Harry Daniels via AP, File)

An attorney for two men whose beatings by guards were recorded by security cameras at a county jail in Georgia called Wednesday for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate what he called a systemic pattern of sheriff’s officers abusing detainees.

“They are beating people indiscriminately inside this jail,” civil rights attorney Harry Daniels told reporters at a news conference outside the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, about 95 miles (152 kilometers) south of Savannah.

Daniels represents Jarrett Hobbs, a 41-year-old Black man booked into the Camden County jail for a traffic violation and drug possession charges on Sept. 3. Security cameras recorded jailers rushing to Hobbs’ cell and repeatedly punching him before hurling him against a wall.