Lashawn Thompson

On June 12, 2022, Lashawn Thompson was arrested and held on an old warrant after allegedly spitting at a Georgia Tech police officer, according to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. At the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Thompson, a 35-year-old unhoused man with a history of mental illness, initially seemed alert and took prescribed medications, according to jail records referenced in an independent autopsy report. But records from NaphCare, the private company contracted to deliver healthcare in the jail, indicate that, for more than a month in late summer, he received no medication. By September 8, 2022, Thompson was documented lying in a fetal position on the floor of his cell and appeared to have lost a significant amount of weight. He was to be placed on “psych observation,” according to the independent autopsy report. But four days later, he had severely deteriorated, still awaiting transfer to the observation unit.

On September 13, he was found unresponsive in his jail cell, covered in feces and body lice, “slumped over with his head on his toilet,” according to the DOJ investigation. The official autopsy report from the Fulton County Medical Examiner noted that his body was infested with “an enormous number of small insects.” The medical examiner reported his cause of death as “undetermined,” with significant conditions of “severe schizoaffective disorder bipolar and acute exacerbation.”

The independent autopsy report, however, determined that Thompson died from “severe neglect evidenced by untreated schizophrenia, poor living conditions, poor grooming, extensive and severe body insect infestation, dehydration, and rapid weight loss.” The forensic pathologist ruled Thompson’s death a homicide. He noted that Thompson had lost 32 pounds in fewer than 90 days and was “completely reliant on his caregivers to provide both day-to-day care as well as the acute life-saving care that was needed to save him from the untreated decompensated schizophrenia.”

After Thompson’s death, a NaphCare report found that every single person in the Fulton County Jail’s mental health housing unit, where Thompson had died, was infested with lice, scabies or both. Additionally, according to the DOJ investigation, medical staff determined that 90% of the people living on the unit during the month when Thompson died were “significantly malnourished with obvious muscle wasting.”

According to NaphCare, the company “sounded the alarm” about the infestation problems at the Fulton County Jail “multiple times,” and the company’s CEO said that the jail was “one of the most difficult places we’ve operated” and that “the safety and security issues were severe.”

A spokesperson for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office told the Lab that, the year before Thompson’s death, the sheriff’s office had “approved NaphCare’s policy allowing for the involuntary administration of medication when appropriate. Why NaphCare chose not to invoke this policy in Mr. Thompson’s situation is a question that only they can answer, as they are solely responsible for administering all medications.”

“The Fulton County Sheriff's Office has consistently raised concerns about the physical conditions of the Fulton County Jail and staffing levels during the time period in question until the present. Since the time period in question, we have made significant progress,” the spokesperson added, citing a reduction in the jail population, weekly skin checks for residents of the mental health unit, and an increase in detainees’ daily caloric intake.

In January of 2025, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office entered into a court-enforceable consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice.

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