Jail officials in Georgia’s most populous county are violating the constitutional rights of people in their custody by failing to protect them from violence, using excessive force, and holding them in filthy and unsafe conditions,

The Fulton County Jail in Atlanta unconstitutionally subjects inmates to “inhumane, violent and hazardous conditions” that threaten their safety, a US Justice Department official said Thursday, announcing the results of a 16-month investigation.

The Justice Department has found that egregious conditions at Georgia’s Fulton County Jail — including pest infestation, malnourishment, a lack of adequate medical care and rampant violence that contributed to multiple deaths — violate the constitutional rights of people in custody.

The Justice Department found that Fulton County Jail in Georgia violates constitutional laws, with conditions leading to violence, neglect, and deaths.

In a blunt report released on Thursday, the department said officials in Fulton County have had “deliberate indifference to the risks of harms.”

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - The United States Department of Justice has issued its report after opening a civil investigation into the conditions at the Fulton County Jail. They announced the disturbing results of that investigation at a press conference early Thursday afternoon.

At that time, at least seven people had died inside the jail since the DOJ started its investigation. “Today’s Justice Department report confirms that abuse at the Fulton County Jail has been not just horrific,