However, a spokesperson for the same office later said that the YFN trial had been pushed back due to security issues. District Attorney Fani Willis stated last year that the war between the two street gangs resulted in at least 50 shootings and multiple murders; according to the spokesperson, the prospect of both street gangs in the same courthouse at the same time drove the decision to delay.

Other law-enforcement sources make similar claims. “Providing security for the YSL trial is a priority that requires the deployment of resources from various Fulton County Sheriff’s Office units,” a sheriff’s office spokesman said in a statement to RS. “Because some of the defendants are housed in other counties, the security protocol also involves daily coordination with other agencies regarding transportation and courthouse security. Due to the unprecedented nature of this trial, we are constantly assessing security and making the necessary adjustments to ensure the safety of those involved and the courthouse complex as a whole.”

Fulton County’s jail is overcrowded, with inmates sleeping in common areas in plastic boats, sheriff Pat Labat told county officials last year. Stabbings occur daily, he said. Fifteen people died in the sheriff’s custody in 2022, according to the Fulton County medical examiner’s office, compared to two or three in pre-pandemic years. The Southern Center for Human Rights and the ACLU issued a scathing report last year describing rampant malnourishment and neglect on the jail’s mental-health floor, where every single inmate was afflicted with lice, scabies, or both.

The YSL Case Is Stretching Fulton County’s Justice System to Its Breaking Point

Attorneys in Atlanta describe widespread delays and disruptions to other cases as the prosecution of Young Thug moves slowly onward, with months still to go

^{George Chidi (Yahoo Life)}