Health Affairs June 7, 2024
Fulton County, Georgia, is experiencing an unprecedented crisis of jail-attributable deaths—deaths to which the difficult conditions of incarceration were a contributor—in its carceral facilities. Since the start of 2022, 28 people have died in custody. In 2023, the average age of the 10 deceased individuals was 33 years old, far too young to be a result of “natural” causes. In one particularly disturbing case in 2022, 35-year-old Lashawn Thompson died of what an independent medical review called “dehydration, malnutrition, and severe body insect infestation…due to severe neglect.”
The horrific conditions and substandard treatment incarcerated individuals such as Thompson are made to endure have sparked yet another Department of Justice investigation of the Fulton County jail. This type of investigation may...
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