Fulton County wraps up Project ORCA
Fulton County wraps up Project ORCA
February 05, 2025
Project ORCA has done its job.
The three-year effort to eliminate a huge backlog of court cases – and, correspondingly, reduce the burgeoning inmate population at the Fulton County Jail – ended as planned with its mission accomplished.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Fulton County’s justice system was nearly overwhelmed. Most court proceedings ground to a halt. More people entered the jail but few left. The number of open cases topped 148,000, while the jail population exceeded 3,000.
Fortunately, Fulton County received major federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). That money could be used at the county’s discretion to recover from pandemic-related problems.
So the Board of Commissioners allocated the largest chunk of ARPA funds to tackle the case backlog – a total of $81 million.
The intensive effort to cut the backlog was dubbed it Project ORCA in reference to the backlog’s huge size.
When the effort began, the largest number of open cases was before the Solicitor General: 56,462. By the end of December 2024, that was down to 599 remaining cases. The District
Attorney’s office faced 16,300 open cases but has eliminated that backlog entirely. Magistrate Court had the second-largest number of open cases, with 39,435. By December’send, that had been reduced to 2,283.
State Court and Superior Court together had nearly 36,000 open cases to start with, with under 7,000 left to dispose.
The impact of that case reduction is not felt in paperwork alone. Project ORCA meant a real reduction in the number of people in county custody and shorter incarceration.
The average length of stays in the Fulton County Jail dropped from 71 in May 2023 to 48 in December 2024. The goal is to get that down to 30 days. In the same period, the percentage of those inmates who had not yet been indicted fell from 34% to 16%. The goal is 10% unindicted. Of those still in jail before indictment, 81% have been held for 90 days or less.
As of January 14, 2025, the total number of inmates held by Fulton County had dropped to 2,476, with just 1,602 of those in the main jail at Rice Street. In all, Project ORCA involved hiring 528 staff across a dozen departments. That included 133 in the District Attorney’s office – the largest number – 90 in the Solicitor General’s office, 61 in Superior Court, and 52 in the Public Defender’s office, with the rest spread in smaller numbers across eight more departments.
The work began December 6, 2021. It was originally expected to be complete at the end of 2023; case disposition went quickly to start with, but slowed as the “easy” ones were concluded and longer, more complex cases remained. Project ORCA was extended twice, concluding at the end of 2024.
At its conclusion, the backlog was fewer than 10,000 cases and on track to be completely eliminated within a few more months. Project ORCA hires knew from the start that their positions were time-limited and didn’t guarantee future employment by the county, but more than half were hired into full-time positions.
As December 2024, a total of 290 Project ORCA personnel had transferred to permanent full-time positions with Fulton County. An additional 238 had separated and moved on to other opportunities. Project ORCA funding did more than just hire staff. The ARPA allocation also paid for Zoom technology use in court, more courtroom space, electronic ankle monitors to get low-level inmates out of jail, uniforms and supplies, and other administrative costs.
Even as Project ORCA itself has ended, the county will continue to make case expediting and inmate reduction a priority. Those efforts will include multi-agency strategies to reduce the jail population and develop follow-up measures and a reporting framework.
Other efforts toward innovative justice solutions exist outside of Project ORCA and will go on, including the new Diversion Center, a joint project with Atlanta, which began serving clients in January. Jail population reduction initiatives are ongoing, including the subsidized ankle monitor program. Work also continues on improving efficiency and outcomes of the Accountability Court programs.
Finally, the County is moving forward on significant investments with planned improvements to the Fulton County Jail. In 2024, the Board of Commissioners committed to investing up to $300 million in renovations at the jail. In November, the Board approved a five-year contract for jail renovation program management with ACR Partners of Atlanta.
The three-year effort to eliminate a huge backlog of court cases – and, correspondingly, reduce the burgeoning inmate population at the Fulton County Jail – ended as planned with its mission accomplished.
During the COVID-19 pandemic Fulton County’s justice system was nearly overwhelmed. Most court proceedings ground to a halt. More people entered the jail but few left. The number of open cases topped 148,000, while the jail population exceeded 3,000.
Fortunately, Fulton County received major federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). That money could be used at the county’s discretion to recover from pandemic-related problems.
So the Board of Commissioners allocated the largest chunk of ARPA funds to tackle the case backlog – a total of $81 million.
The intensive effort to cut the backlog was dubbed it Project ORCA in reference to the backlog’s huge size.
When the effort began, the largest number of open cases was before the Solicitor General: 56,462. By the end of December 2024, that was down to 599 remaining cases. The District
Attorney’s office faced 16,300 open cases but has eliminated that backlog entirely. Magistrate Court had the second-largest number of open cases, with 39,435. By December’send, that had been reduced to 2,283.
State Court and Superior Court together had nearly 36,000 open cases to start with, with under 7,000 left to dispose.
The impact of that case reduction is not felt in paperwork alone. Project ORCA meant a real reduction in the number of people in county custody and shorter incarceration.
The average length of stays in the Fulton County Jail dropped from 71 in May 2023 to 48 in December 2024. The goal is to get that down to 30 days. In the same period, the percentage of those inmates who had not yet been indicted fell from 34% to 16%. The goal is 10% unindicted. Of those still in jail before indictment, 81% have been held for 90 days or less.
As of January 14, 2025, the total number of inmates held by Fulton County had dropped to 2,476, with just 1,602 of those in the main jail at Rice Street. In all, Project ORCA involved hiring 528 staff across a dozen departments. That included 133 in the District Attorney’s office – the largest number – 90 in the Solicitor General’s office, 61 in Superior Court, and 52 in the Public Defender’s office, with the rest spread in smaller numbers across eight more departments.
The work began December 6, 2021. It was originally expected to be complete at the end of 2023; case disposition went quickly to start with, but slowed as the “easy” ones were concluded and longer, more complex cases remained. Project ORCA was extended twice, concluding at the end of 2024.
At its conclusion, the backlog was fewer than 10,000 cases and on track to be completely eliminated within a few more months. Project ORCA hires knew from the start that their positions were time-limited and didn’t guarantee future employment by the county, but more than half were hired into full-time positions.
As December 2024, a total of 290 Project ORCA personnel had transferred to permanent full-time positions with Fulton County. An additional 238 had separated and moved on to other opportunities. Project ORCA funding did more than just hire staff. The ARPA allocation also paid for Zoom technology use in court, more courtroom space, electronic ankle monitors to get low-level inmates out of jail, uniforms and supplies, and other administrative costs.
Even as Project ORCA itself has ended, the county will continue to make case expediting and inmate reduction a priority. Those efforts will include multi-agency strategies to reduce the jail population and develop follow-up measures and a reporting framework.
Other efforts toward innovative justice solutions exist outside of Project ORCA and will go on, including the new Diversion Center, a joint project with Atlanta, which began serving clients in January. Jail population reduction initiatives are ongoing, including the subsidized ankle monitor program. Work also continues on improving efficiency and outcomes of the Accountability Court programs.
Finally, the County is moving forward on significant investments with planned improvements to the Fulton County Jail. In 2024, the Board of Commissioners committed to investing up to $300 million in renovations at the jail. In November, the Board approved a five-year contract for jail renovation program management with ACR Partners of Atlanta.