Inside notorious jail where Trump surrendered

On Thursday, Donald Trump turned himself successful to constabulary successful Fulton County, Georgia. The process took conscionable minutes - but astir different defendants are not truthful lucky.

The erstwhile president had a precise antithetic acquisition from those who languish successful the county's notoriously unsafe jailhouse for weeks, months oregon adjacent years portion awaiting trial.

In the US, transgression defendants hold successful a jailhouse if they person been arrested, are awaiting proceedings without bail, oregon are serving a abbreviated condemnation down bars. Prisons are wherever criminals service longer sentences aft conviction.

Hundreds of radical were held astatine Fulton County Jail for much than 90 days due to the fact that they had yet to beryllium formally charged oregon could not spend to wage the bail enslaved required for their release, according to a September 2022 study from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The study besides recovered 117 radical had waited successful jailhouse for much than a twelvemonth due to the fact that they had not been indicted; 12 had been held for 2 years for the aforesaid reason.

"It's fundamentally been overcrowded since it was built," said Fallon McClure, the lawman manager of argumentation and advocacy astatine the ACLU of Georgia. "This has conscionable been a perpetual rhythm implicit and implicit for years."

Built successful 1985 to location astir 1,300 inmates, Fulton County Jail has held much than 3,000 radical successful caller years.

The jailhouse provides "unhygienic surviving conditions" that person led to outbreaks of Covid-19, lice and scabies, a study by the Southern Center for Human Rights said. It recovered inmates were "significantly malnourished" and dealing with a information called cachexia, besides known arsenic wasting syndrome.

Waiting successful these dilapidated conditions has proven deadly for some.

This month, a 34-year-old antheral was recovered unconscious successful a aesculapian portion compartment astatine the jail, wherever helium had been held since 2019. He was resuscitated, but past died astatine the hospital, according to the Fulton County Sheriff's office.

He was the sixth idiosyncratic this twelvemonth to dice successful the region jailhouse strategy successful 2023.

Noni Battiste-Kosoko was conscionable 19 erstwhile she died successful Fulton County Jail custody successful July aft being arrested connected a little superior misdemeanour charge. Deputies recovered her unresponsive successful her compartment successful the Atlanta City Detention Center, an further abstraction the region is leasing to alleviate overcrowding astatine the main jail.

Battiste-Kosoko's household has inactive not been fixed a origin for her decease oregon recovered retired the results of her post-mortem examination, her family's lawyer told the BBC.

"There has been a accordant and unsettling signifier of mediocre healthcare and inmates dying astatine the jailhouse nether mysterious circumstances," said Roderick Edmond.

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office told the BBC it was inactive awaiting a last study from the autopsy, and that it was investigating the incident.

Battiste-Kosoko's decease came conscionable earlier Fulton County this period agreed to wage $4m (£3.1m) to the household of a antheral who died successful the jailhouse covered successful furniture bug bites.

An autarkic autopsy recovered 35-year-old Lashawn Thompson died successful the jail's psychiatric helping past September due to the fact that of "severe neglect" from jailhouse staff. His decease sparked an probe from the US Department of Justice into conditions astatine the jail, entree to aesculapian attraction and excessive usage of unit by officers.

When it was built successful the 1980s, the jailhouse was "state of the art", said Dr Edmond, the attorney. "But it is nary longer. That jailhouse needs to beryllium demolished and the citizens of Fulton County request to excavation heavy and wage the taxation dollars to physique a marque caller jail."

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office itself has acknowledged conditions astatine the gathering are "dilapidated and rapidly eroding". It has besides called for the operation of a caller $1.7bn jail.

"There's been a batch of speech of cleaning it up," said Ms McClure of the ACLU. "We person not truly seen oregon heard thing peculiarly significant. It seems similar a batch of posturing."

Ms McClure said a fig of factors person led to overcrowding successful the Fulton County Jail system. For one, radical charged with misdemeanours successful the region are arrested and taken into custody, dissimilar immoderate different Georgia jurisdictions, wherever defendants are mostly released and fixed a aboriginal tribunal day for insignificant offences, she said.

The region has besides faced a backlog of cases due to the fact that of the Covid-19 pandemic, and astir recently, a slew of indictments nether the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act unrelated to the Trump case, she said.

Mr Trump and his co-defendants were charged for violating the aforesaid statute. But indictments nether the law, passed successful the 1970s to assistance instrumentality down organised transgression groups similar the mafia, are analyzable and assets intensive, experts say.

"There's the presumption that different cases aren't getting indicted due to the fact that this is taking up truthful overmuch time," Ms McClure said.

On Thursday, Mr Trump was fingerprinted and had his mugshot taken. He was fixed an recognition fig and details of his charges, his tallness and weight, and his location metropolis were published connected the Fulton County website.

But it's determination that the similarities betwixt the erstwhile president and the mean inmate end.

Mr Trump travelled to and from the jailhouse with a ample constabulary escort, and his sojourn lasted astir 20 minutes. Authorities person cited heightened information concerns successful making peculiar arrangements.

The opposition successful experiences rankled immoderate defence attorneys who person worked successful Fulton County for years.

"He's gonna beryllium treated with kid gloves due to the fact that he's a erstwhile president," said Keisha Steed, an Atlanta-area transgression defence lawyer who erstwhile worked arsenic a nationalist defender.

"And our clients are going to beryllium kicked successful the teeth."