There are no new developments in the investigations regarding the deaths of four inmates in the Athens-Clarke County Jail between April and July 2025, Mayor Kelly Girtz said Tuesday.
Two of these inmates died of apparent drug overdoses. Before the death of the fourth inmate, Clarke County Sheriff John Williams cited staff shortages and an outdated camera system as reasons why the deaths occurred.
Girtz addressed these drug-related deaths and other public safety concerns at a press conference on Sept. 23.
“We have worked with the sheriff this year to make sure that their sheriff’s deputies also received a pay increase, so his staffing levels will increase,” Girtz said, in response to a question about how ACC plans to address the flow of drugs into jails.
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Opioid-related deaths in Clarke County were 20 per 100,000 people, larger than the state average of 17.9 per 100,000, according to data collected by the Georgia Department of Public Health in 2023.
Other developments regarding public safety around ACC include a reduction in aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft, according to data in the Athens-Clarke County Police Department Transparency Hub. As of September, there have been no murders for the first time in ACC history.
Certain types of crime have increased in the past year. Liquor law violations are up 54%, driving under the influence is up 7% and narcotic violations are up 16%, though Girtz said ACC Police Chief Jerry Saulters had indicated to him that these were due to increased police presence in communities.
ACC has also worked to improve the state of policing, giving officers six months of post-certification in-house training and 40 hours of crisis intervention training.
In addition, the implementation of the Real Time Crime Center, a collaboration undertaken by private and public cameras around Athens, has helped police solve crime quickly and prevent additional crime from taking place, Girtz said.
Girtz said this innovation had allowed them to stop several different crimes, including a shooting two years ago near Five Points.
We were able to trace that vehicle and that gun to where it was disposed of in a trash can, and we were able to make arrests in less than a day,” Girtz said.
Girtz also acknowledged the recent federal funding cuts that have hurt federal agencies and nonprofits.
The Trump administration in late April announced terminations to 373 grant programs from the Department of Justice, totaling up to an estimated $500 million, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
The federal grants provided support for violence reduction, policing and prosecution and other correctional programs, among many others. Girtz said many of these grants were going to cities to ensure violence prevention at the street level.
“I demand that these (grants) be restored, because that’s for the good of every man, woman and child in our state and in our nation,” Girtz said.
Other items that Girtz discussed were new recidivism efforts made to aid incarcerated individuals in reintegrating into society, plans to provide around $15 million in funding for the Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities and work done by the Neighborhood Leaders Program with the Department of Family and Children Services to provide over $9 million in SNAP benefits to eligible community members.
Caroline Feagin is a journalism major in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
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