Donald Trump is anticipated to turn himself in on Thursday to face charges that he attempted to rig the 2020 election, and he will likely do so in a jail in Atlanta where circumstances are so infamous that the Justice Department is looking into them.
According to the sheriff’s office, the 77-year-old former president and the 18 co-defendants in the election racketeering case will be lodged at the Fulton County Jail, also known as the Rice Street Jail.
Before being freed on bond, which in Trump’s case has already been set at $200,000, a defendant must first be fingerprinted and have their picture taken for mug shots.
Trump’s three prior arrests this year—in New York on charges of paying hush money to a porn star, in Florida for improper handling of top-secret government records, and in Washington on charges of plotting to rig the 2020 election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden—did not require him to submit to the humiliation of having a mugshot taken.
But this month, Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat told reporters that “it doesn’t matter your status” when it comes to being booked at his jail.
The Fulton County Jail, where several inmates have died recently, is the subject of an investigation by the Justice Department that was launched in July.
It is being started, according to Attorney General Merrick Garland, “based on serious allegations of unsafe, unsanitary living conditions at the jail.”
Ryan Buchanan, US Attorney, continued, “Recent allegations of filthy housing teeming with insects, rampant violence resulting in death and injuries, and officers using excessive force are cause for grave concern and warrant a thorough investigation.”
The jail reportedly has twice as many inmates as it was intended to in 1989, or more than 2,500, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The publication said that fifteen detainees passed away at the jail last year, and that four deaths had been documented just in the last five weeks.
A $4 million settlement with the family of a 35-year-old man with mental health issues who was discovered dead in his cell and covered in lice and bedbugs has recently been accepted by Fulton County.
