Most agree Macon's jail is barely fit for people. Few agree on how to fix it

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Bibb County Sheriff David Davis came to talk to people protesting conditions in the jail he oversees who were critical of how people with mental health issues fare while detained. “We give them every kind of consideration that we can, given the limitations of our facility. This building we're standing in front of is 45 years old. That space behind it has been occupied 365, seven days a week for the last 45 years by folks that really don't wanna be there,” Davis said.

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB

The protesters moved from where they started, at the bail bond business across the street from the Bibb County Jail to the sidewalk, in the line of sight of the glass windows of the foyer of the jail’s main office, when Sheriff David Davis decided to walk out to meet them.

The protest was small — or maybe, at about 60 people, it was large for the middle of a Wednesday at the end of May. Thanks to an electric megaphone, it was loud. 

Brian Randolph, leader of a prison rights group called the Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia, directed his amplified voice at the sheriff. 

“Come on up! We have a couple questions for you,” Randolph said.  

Davis complied and Randolph gave him the floor. When Davis took the megaphone, he tried to express some sympathy. 

“I just want to tell y'all, I understand where you're coming from,” Davis said.  

For Paula Platt, sympathy wasn’t enough.  

Platt's son Stephen Fossett was killed in the jail in 2024 by guards trying to subdue him when he was experiencing a schizoaffective episode. Local prosecutors have not charged the guards, and Platt is suing.

“He didn't deserve to be treated like trash and dragged around and cussed like a dog,” Platt told the sheriff.  

“I’m sorry you lost your son,” Davis replied.  

“I didn’t lose him,” Platt said. “He was taken from me.”  

Stephen Fossett's death was just one catalyst for the protest. There have been other deaths at this jail in recent years, mostly suicides. Many of the people surrounding the sheriff had loved ones in his care, steps away, past the chain link and razor wire fence. Their stories are often harrowing and seem to be verified by images from inside the jail leaked recently to the Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia Facebook page.    

These are just some of the reasons the Bibb County Jail has come under fire recently for what some are calling inhumane conditions.  

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Denise Iwo shares stories of conditions in the Bibb County Jail — including waking up with insects in your clothes and constant fears of violence — as she heard them from her 26-year-old grandson. Iwo blamed a slow judicial system for some of the problems. “You could be in there for over a year before you even go to the court. That don't make sense,” she said.

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News

Maybe surprisingly, local leaders aren’t pushing back against those claims. What is being debated is how, or even if, to build a new jail as a remedy. 

“Basically, right now, the plumbing's messed up,” said one woman who asked to remain unnamed. She came to the protest out of worry for her brother. 

“He's pooping in commissary bags,” she said. “There’s rats, rodents. Right now, at this moment, he's been having lice, bed bugs, laying eggs on him, stuff like that.” 

Julian Fryer has two sons in the jail.  

“On Monday, one of my sons got stabbed up and robbed while he was sleeping in his cell,” Fryer said. “He's in 'the hole' now.” 

"The hole" is solitary confinement, where, often, people who have been victims of violence in jails or prisons are often placed to at least temporarily protect them from their attackers.  

“They're saying that he's safe," Fryer said. "They got him somewhere safe, but he's not safe mentally. He's safe from people messing with him. But that tears you up mentally, just sitting in a hole.” 

Both of Fryer’s sons first came to the jail when they were 17. 

People can spend years in these conditions waiting to go to trial because of a still-persistent court backlog dating back to the COVID pandemic. That’s one reason the jail remains overcrowded.  

A small number of those detained now, like Julian Fryer’s sons, were first jailed here as minors charged with felonies as adults. They essentially finished growing up in jail.  

Few in power, including Sheriff David Davis, doubt the conditions violate human rights.  

“I agree with them,” Davis said of the protesters. “And, so we do everything we can to make sure that [detainees’] needs are met.” 

But Davis lays some of the blame on the detainees and how they treat the aging jail. 

“This building we're standing in front of is 45 years old," Davis said. "That space behind it has been occupied 365, seven days a week for the last 45 years by folks that really don't want to be there."

He wants a new jail. 

Besides the sheriff, County Commissioner Stanley Stewart was the sole elected official on the street with the protesters. He toured the jail recently with other commissioners.

“It's a real bad situation. It really is," Stewart said — one the county has to find its way past. But, Stewart added, the sheriff may not get what he wants. 

“I don't know if, to be honest, it is feasible to build a new jail now or not,” he said.  

That's despite voters approving last year a $450 million special local option sales tax expressly for big capital projects.  

“Yeah, we just passed $450 million in SPLOST,” Stewart said. “But I don't think the mayor has that on his front burner right now. I think he's more interested in building a new coliseum.” 

After the back and forth with Sheriff Davis, the protest group decided to head downtown to City Hall to speak with Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller. Miller wasn’t in. 

But Miller had just talked about the jail issues about a week prior in his recent, monthly interview with GPB’s partners at the Murphy Center for Collaborative Journalism. 

Miller said, as a former defense attorney, he's no stranger to the jail. And he knows it needs to change.  

“Just because someone is in jail it doesn't mean they don't need to be treated humanely,” Miller told reporter Liz Fabian.   

Caption

Brian Randolph of the Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia organized and led the protest at the Bibb County Jail. His Facebook page, which typically publishes leaked cellphone video from inside Georgia prisons, recently published photos from inside the Bibb County Jail.

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News

But like the sheriff, he blames the incarcerated. He questions whether a brand-new jail would avoid ending up in the same state as the old one.  

“Even at a new brand-new jail, if you're going to throw trash down, if you're going to tear things up or stop toilets up, it's going to happen,” Miller said.    

Plus, he said a new jail could easily burn through most if not every dollar of that new special sales tax, some of which he does want to spend on a new arena on the east side of the Ocmulgee River. One reason: He said an arena is likely to make its money back.  

“I mean who pays for that arena?" Miller said. "People that are coming from out of town, paying a fee on top of that to book a facility — it's revenue-based.

"Who's paying for a new jail? It's the taxpayers, it's raising your taxes, it's using your tax income, it's pulling it from other sources.” 

That said, Miller has pointed out a newly acquired piece of real estate in an industrial area which he imagines could be home to some jail expansion in the future.  

County Commissioner Stanley Stuart represents the east side of Macon, where the new arena may go. He wants that project, too.  

“You can have both things," Stewart said, meaning both jail and arena, though for now no one has put forth a plan for that.  

Meanwhile, a state court grand jury recently toured the Bibb County Jail. Its report on conditions is expected soon.