One of the defendants in the recently wrapped Young Slime Life racketeering and gang trial is now leading a class action against Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat and the county's chief jailer John Jackson over allegations that the two allowed unconstitutional conditions at the jail that violated detainees' Eighth and 14th amendment rights. 

Former YSL defendant Shannon Stillwell, who sued under the name Shannon Jackson, and former prisoner Nkenegen Hambrick alleged this week that detainees at Atlanta's Fulton County Jail face "serious harm by the cruel and unusual conditions of confinement" due to overcrowding, bedbugs, deteriorating infrastructure, rampant violence and unsanitary living conditions. The class action complaint, filed in federal court Tuesday, comes less than a month after the U.S. Department of Justice released a report stating that there were unconstitutional conditions at the jail. 

Stillwell and Hambrick alleged in the suit that the facility's "crumbling infrastructure" is used by prisoners to craft makeshift knives for use as weapons, prisoners can manipulate dysfunctional jail cell doors to enter or exit cells without authorization, and detainees face personal injury and death due to a failure to separate detainees based on their risk levels or gang affiliations. These failures, the two men said, have led to violence, injuries and death. 

The men also alleged that Labat and Jackson utilize inadequate parasite and pest control measures and chemical control measures at the jail and that detainees are given "nutritionally inadequate" meals. Detention officers' use of excessive force and the jail's failure to provide medical treatment for illnesses and injuries are also "longstanding, pervasive and well-documented" problems, Stillwell and Hambrick said, citing incident reports and medical records acquired from the Fulton County Sheriff's Office via an open records request.  

As evidence of their claims about inadequate pest control, the two men cited the DOJ's report, which stated that a detainee died in his cell in the mental health unit of the jail three months after his arrest. A medical examiner cited in that DOJ report found the man's body was infested with an "enormous presence of body lice," according to the complaint, and concluded that he was "neglected to death." They also cited the experience of Hambrick himself, who was incarcerated at the jail from January 2023 to June 2023. 

While there, Hambrick allegedly suffered "severed wounds and sores on his torso and lower body" due to the jail's unsanitary and unsafe conditions. Medical providers who treated Hambrick after his release reported he had "20ish stab wounds, feels like he has bug bites, possible spider bite on back of leg," according to the complaint, and noted that he had "multiple skin ulcerations" and a "very large ulceration on his inner right thigh."

Stillwell was indicted alongside Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug and 26 others on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act charges in 2022. He was acquitted of those charges, including two counts of murder, earlier this month and sentenced to time served on a single guilty verdict. However, he remains in jail on other pending charges.

Stillwell was stabbed twice during his incarceration in separate makeshift "shanking" attacks, according to the complaint, and had to visit Grady Memorial Hospital with serious injuries. Stillwell and Hambrick alleged that one of those attacks was made possible because another detainee was able to interfere with the security operations of his cell. The other attack, they said, was only possible because there was no officer assigned to the floor they were housed in at the time of the attack. 

The men are seeking to represent all individuals who have been or will be detained at the jail, and who have suffered personal injuries, psychological suffering, mental anguish or death because of Labat and Jackson's alleged indifferences to "known, excessive risks" to detainees' health and safety. 

Stillwell and Hambrick asked the court to award injunctive relief to address jail safety and sanitation. Among other things, the men said the injunction should require Labat and Jackson to develop and implement a plan to reduce the availability of materials that could be used to create handmade knives, establish classification systems and housing plans that offer adequate protections, conduct a review of cell and zone door locking mechanisms and consider replacing those that are not operational and implement and ensure adherence to "thorough sanitation policies." 

The men also asked the court to award compensatory relief for injuries suffered at the jail that were "caused by stabbings, health conditions arising from unsanitary and bug-ridden conditions, and excessive use of force by detention officers," as well as punitive damages, interest and attorney fees and costs. 

Counsel for Stillwell and Hambrick and representatives for the Fulton County Sheriff's Office did not respond immediately to requests for comment on Friday. 

Stillwell and Hambrick are represented by Michael D. Harper and Patrick W. Leed of Michael D. Harper PC. 

Counsel information for Labat and Jackson was not immediately available. 

The case is Hambrick et al. v. Labat et al., case number 1:24-cv-05658, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. 

--Editing by Jay Jackson Jr.