Three Fulton County, Georgia prison employees have quit after a mentally ill inmate was found dead in his cell, allegedly “eaten alive” by insects. The man’s family calls for a criminal investigation into the incident and the behavior of the prison staff, and for the prison itself to be closed.
“They put this man in this cell and left him there to die,” said Michael Harper, the family attorney. called during a press conference on Thursday. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
LaShawn Thompson, who suffered from schizophrenia, was found dead in his cell at the Fulton County Jail outside of Atlanta last September. After To WSB TV, a local news channel, Thompson was held for three months after he was arrested in June for aggravated assault. He was held in the prison’s psychiatric ward.
The Washington Post reported last week that prison documents said the first prison officer who found Thompson’s body “freaked out” and refused to perform CPR. The report further notes that Thompson’s body was covered with lice, bugs and numerous lesions. Graphic photos released by the Thompson family attorney show that Thompson’s cell was covered in dirt and insects at the time of his death, although the autopsy listed Thompson’s cause of death as “undetermined.”
Fulton County Law Enforcement answered to build outrage over Thompson’s death on Monday. “I realize it’s time to clean up the house,” Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat said in a statement on the incident, which also announced the resignations of the chief jailer and two deputy chief jailers.
Labat also noted that an internal investigation into the matter is ongoing. “The final investigative report will not ease the family’s grief or bring their loved one back, but I hope and expect that it will provide a full, accurate and transparent account of the facts.”
The appalling conditions in which Thompson lived and died are not uncommon in the Fulton County Jail. A November 2022 report from the Southern Center for Human Rights found that every inmate housed in the prison’s mental ward had either lice, scabies, or both. The report also concluded that 90 percent of affected inmates “were severely malnourished and showed clear signs of cachexia — an wasting syndrome that leads to loss of muscle and fat and is common in people with late-stage cancer.”
“This is inexcusable and unfortunate,” Harper said called. “Medical staff and officials saw him ailing in the last few weeks leading up to his death. You did nothing to help him. Nothing. They found him dead in his cell, lying there, infested with bugs and lice, and that killed him.”
Thompson’s family has specified they intend to file a civil lawsuit against the prison.
