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Embattled Sheriff in Georgia to Take Paid Leave NewsMax.com WiresATLANTA – Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett will take paid leave for the rest of her term amid criticism of her handling of the county's overcrowded jail and an investigation into $7.2 million of public money she invested, her attorney said Friday. Barrett will take the leave beginning Aug. 1, said attorney Ted Lackland. She is not seeking re-election this year. She was the nation's first elected black woman sheriff when she won her first term in 1992. Story Continues Below Barrett is leaving because she believes she hasn't been treated fairly, Lackland said. He said she's been taking the blame for conditions in the jail she can't control. "She's tired of being a political football," Lackland said. Friday's announcement comes two weeks after the governor appointed a panel to determine whether Barrett should be suspended because of the investments. The Georgia Sheriff's Association sent a letter to Perdue asking that he begin the proceedings. "The sheriff association is asking the governor to investigate the sheriff for something the sheriff didn't do," Lackland said. Lackland said he did not think Barrett had submitted her resignation. Barrett was not immediately available for comment. Overcrowding and poor conditions at the jail has in large part been caused by extra inmates taken on from the state, Lackland said. "If the state had picked up their sentenced inmates, it wouldn't be an issue," he said. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob appointed a former jail administrator of the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta to take over control of the jail from Barrett. Shoob acted in a lawsuit filed last month by the Southern Center for Human Rights, which claims conditions are inhumane and unsafe for inmates and staff. The jail was designed for about 14-hundred inmates but averages more than three-thousand. An assistant state attorney general told the judge Thursday that 82 convicted criminals have been transferred from the Fulton County Jail to state prison. He said an additional 92 should be removed within a week.
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