Fulton County, Georgia, and its Sheriff's Office violated the constitutional rights of people housed at the county jail, according to a new report released by the Justice Department on Thursday. "Fulton County Jail fails to adequately protect incarcerated people from the substantial risk of serious harm from violence,

The Fulton County Jail in Atlanta 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.

U.S. Justice Department officials said jail officials in Georgia’s most populous county violate 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.

Justice Department finds that Georgia’s Fulton County fails to adequately protect jail inmates from violence

The DOJ launched a civil rights investigation into conditions at the Fulton County Jail after several inmates had died in a matter of weeks. One inmate, according to his family, was "eaten alive" by bed bugs.

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

Georgia officials violated the rights of people in an overcrowded jail plagued by killings and inhumane conditions, a Justice Department report says.