More inmates will die at the Athens-Clarke County jail unless the ACC Commission approves funding for deputy pay raises, Sheriff John Williams told commissioners at a budget hearing last week.
Two men, aged 39 and 32, died while in custody within the past month. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting autopsies but has not released the results.
“I’m telling you in no uncertain terms, more people are going to die if I can’t hire more people. Is that clear?” Williams told commissioners.
“If I don’t get my staffing up, the next person who dies at that jail, let it be on your head,” he continued. “The next time one of your Clarke County employees gets assaulted at that jail because of low staffing, let it be on your head.”
The sheriff’s office is down approximately 40 out of 195 employees. Williams has repeatedly blamed the chronic staff shortage on the disparity in pay between sheriff’s deputies and ACC police officers. He has requested $600,000 for pay raises this year. “The bottom line is what money does, it fills positions and it keeps people there,” he said.
Williams also requested $1.3 million for medical care, but Mayor Kelly Girtz’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget only includes $177,000.
In addition, Williams said he will be bringing forward a request for a new camera system, in conjunction with Superior Court Chief Judge Lisa Lott and Court Administrator Laura Welch, at a cost of $1.5 million to $2 million. He accused the commission of resisting needed improvements to courthouse security because ACC is planning on building a new judicial center. But the commission has not even chosen a location yet, and the $72 million SPLOST-funded project has already been scaled back due to budget constraints.
“The courthouse is in disarray,” Williams said. “Pardon my French, I got judges, attorneys, everybody crawling up my ass asking me what I’m going to do, and I’m asking y’all what y’all are going to do.”
Meanwhile, District Attorney Kalki Yalamanchili is asking for funding to hire six new staffers. The DA’s office currently only has 23 positions because, according to Yalamanchili, his predecessor Deborah Gonzalez did not apply to renew a federal grant that funded seven jobs.
Gonzalez lost her re-election bid last year at least in part because of an inability to fully staff the office. Since he took over in January, Yalamanchili said he has hired nine prosecutors and has an offer out to a tenth, which would bring the total to 14 assistant DAs and leave just one ADA position open. One of those ADAs is assigned full-time to accountability courts that provide treatment for offenders with mental health and substance abuse issues. He also said he’s re-established a relationship with the University of Georgia School of Law and is bringing in law students as interns starting this fall.
Yalamanchili told the commission his office has a backlog of about 1,500 felony cases, more than three times the usual caseload. With the police department fully staffed and new technology like a real-time crime lab, prosecutors have more evidence to go through than ever, which he said is a good thing but time-consuming.
Yalamanchili said he will receive $150,000 from the Oconee County government and is asking ACC for $240,000. The funding would allow him to hire special victims unit investigators and a full-time investigator for juvenile court.
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