JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES LAWSUIT CHALLENGING
CONDITIONS AT TERRELL COUNTY JAIL

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it has filed a lawsuit challenging the conditions of confinement at Terrell County Jail in Dawson, Georgia. The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, alleges that conditions at the facility routinely and systemically deprive inmates of federally protected rights.

“When a jurisdiction refuses to take appropriate steps to address violations of constitutional rights, and flouts its agreements to do so, the Department of Justice will move aggressively to protect those rights,” said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

The United States’ complaint alleges that the jail routinely violated federally protected rights, including failing to protect inmate safety, failing to provide required medical and mental health care, and failing to provide sufficiently sanitary living conditions.

The Department’s lengthy and detailed investigation revealed evidence of a number of serious violations of federally protected rights at the jail. For example, after jail officials allegedly left one detainee, with known mental health problems, unsupervised despite his being on “suicide watch,” he hanged himself with his bed sheet. The Department has resolved amicably several similar matters, including investigations into neighboring jails in southwest Georgia. Terrell County previously entered into a voluntary settlement agreement with the United States that would have remedied the illegal conditions identified at the jail. However, the United States alleges that Terrell County failed to live up to the terms of that agreement, which necessitated the filing of this lawsuit.

Protecting the rights of institutionalized persons is a priority of the Civil Rights Division. Since 2001, the Department of Justice has opened 43 investigations impacting 50 facilities into the terms and conditions of confinement at jails, nursing homes, mental health facilities and residences for persons with developmental disabilities, as well as similar institutions. These figures represent a one hundred percent increase over the 20 such investigations initiated over the preceding three years.

Additional information about the Special Litigation Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division can be found at www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/index.html.

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