Plan to move hundreds of pretrial detainees from Atlanta area to South Georgia draws challenges

Caption

A van drives by inmates at the Irwin Center Detention Center Wednesday Sept. 25, 2020.

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News

The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) plans to move hundreds of people awaiting trial at a detention center near Atlanta to a facility in South Georgia.

The plan is drawing sharp criticism from Atlanta-area attorneys and others in the legal community.

Natasha Perdew Silas leads the Northern District of Georgia’s Federal Defender Program, which represents people charged in federal court who can’t afford an attorney.

She said moving detainees facing trial in Atlanta to Irwin County will hurt her clients in court and waste taxpayer dollars on travel.

"When you have a busy docket like Atlanta, you have no business keeping people 200 miles away," she said. "This would mean we would have to drive three hours to see them."

The plan involves moving about 400 people from the Robert A. Dayton Detention (RADD) Facility in Lovejoy, just south of Atlanta, to the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla.

The Federal Defender Program represents about half of them, according to Perdew Silas.

Her office has filed motions to try to stop the transfers.

"All of the stakeholders within the district agree that this would be a terrible idea," she said. "Instead, what we have is decision-makers from outside the district, in Washington, D.C., who have decided that this would be a great thing to do."

In a statement responding to GPB’s questions, a spokesperson for the agency, Abigail Meyer, did not explain exactly why the USMS was making the move.

But, in a letter to the agency’s director from U.S. Sens. John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the lawmakers suggest that the agency is concerned about conditions at the Atlanta-area facility.

"We understand that USMS has raised concerns about the quality of care and the level of security offered at RADD," the senators wrote in a letter dated Sept. 29. "However, it is incumbent upon USMS to ensure safe and humane conditions without sacrificing access to justice for pretrial detainees."

Meyer wrote that decisions about moving detainees are based on "diverse challenges" to ensure the safe and secure confinement, care and transportation of federal prisoners.

The USMS does not own or operate any detention facilities, but rather works with federal, state, local and private partners to house detainees.

"We will continue to evaluate the below complexities as it relates to the over 400 USMS prisoners requiring rehousing, and collaborate internally, as well as with our external detention partners, to identify facilities with safe, secure, and humane conditions of confinement for relocation," Meyer wrote.

In a court filing, Federal Defender Program argues that the move would violate its clients’ constitutional rights to counsel, to a speedy trial and to due process of law.