Atlanta Jail Task Force Holds Fourth Public Meeting

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The Atlanta City Detention Center Task Force will help decide what to do with the Atlanta Detention Center, which will be closed and repurposed. / Twitter

The Atlanta City Detention Center Task Force held its fourth public meeting Tuesday night.

The group is coming up with new uses for the detention center after Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms signed legislation to close the jail.

The area will be repurposed as the Center for Equity, which will offer social services to people in need.

Rashad Taylor, who co-chairs the Task Force, said the jail currently houses around 100 low-level offenders.

“We can continue to arrest people, but they'll continue to do the same behavior until we help them change their lives,” Taylor said. “If they're homeless, (dealing with) mental health and substance abuse, we want to be a resource. Otherwise, the cycle will just continue.”

https://t.co/19dJLhxVNE— City of Atlanta, GA (@CityofAtlanta) December 10, 2019

Taylor said they also plan to use the 500,000 square foot facility as a financial generator for the city, floating out ideas like creating recording studios and a 24-hour daycare for working parents.

“We want to think about how this facility, at the foot of our downtown, can support our whole city,” Taylor said. “That’s what this whole project is all about.”

The task force said it's still figuring out where the current detainees will be moved and how closing the detention center might affect nearby jails.

In Fulton, state lawmakers recently toured the county jail, which is dealing with overcrowding.

The task force will hold its next public meeting in February.