Some improvements needed

Historically, the jail house has been among the first of the public buildings constructed in most new communities. It is interesting to note that, initially, jails were intended to be little more than holding cells…places to keep criminals until they could be tried. And that is exactly the purpose that led to the construction of Atlanta’s first jail. Because the county jail in DeKalb was 6-miles away and not often a convenient trip, the City of Atlanta in the mid 1840s felt the need for a facility to detain captured, run-away slaves. That led to the construction of the city