ATLANTA, Ga. — By the thinnest possible margin, the Atlanta City Council late Monday cleared Mayor Andre Dickens to keep pursuing a $68 million sale of the city detention center to Fulton County.
The tally was 8 to 7 on a council that seats 15 members, 12 elected by district and three at-large. The vote does not close the deal. Members still have to sign off on an intergovernmental agreement with the county before ownership changes hands.
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat has argued for years that taking over the Atlanta City Detention Center, which holds about 1,300 beds, would ease the hazards inside the Rice Street county lockup and help the county get out from under a federal consent decree. The county lockup has drawn Department of Justice scrutiny over its conditions in recent years.
Skeptics note that the county already leases around 700 beds in the city building, and staff shortages in the sheriff’s office over the last four years have left many of them unused. That lease was due to run out in early December.
Opponents on and off the council, led by Councilman Michael Julian Bond, argued the city was trading a chance at broader criminal justice reform for a quick payout and walking away from earlier pledges by Dickens and former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to take Atlanta out of running a jail. City finance chief Mohamed Balla has told members Atlanta spends roughly $30 million a year on corrections and could save up to $20 million a year by selling.
A proposal to steer the proceeds into the mayor’s neighborhood reinvestment initiative has also drawn criticism ahead of the final vote on the county agreement.
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