James “JT” Brown has 37 years of experience as a law enforcement and security professional. Now, he’s looking to take what he’s learned to become the 2024 Fulton County Sheriff. With issues such as fiscal management, deaths in the jail, and budgeting, Brown is looking to put his vision and plan into motion and create a safer environment for those in Fulton County.
Brown spoke with rolling out about his vision as sheriff and what he plans to change if he is elected into office.
You mention the three d’s in your campaign. What are they?
Death, dollars, and diversion. For deaths [in the jai], it starts with leadership, doing policy and procedures, and implementing a plan to solve all the major issues that are going on at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office at this time. You have to have a plan for the deaths.
Also, we’re going to have diversion. Diversion is very important. I’m going to have a youth program, which is a literacy program, because on my tour duties when I was working in juvenile warrants, most of the youth who were in trouble stated the reason they didn’t go to school was because they couldn’t read it and they got teased. I said if I ever got in charge of the sheriff’s office, I was definitely going to have a literacy program to bring that problem to a halt.
Next are detainees that are inside the Fulton County Jail. In order for them to be productive when they get out, I want to have job programs where they can actually earn money while they’re in jail. I’ve been talking to business organizations because I’m going to need a partnership with businesses to help us meet that challenge. I’m going to partner with businesses to bring jobs into the Fulton County Jail for those detainees so that when they get out, they have something to look forward to.
The last one is recidivism. I do not want them to return. So those programs that I have, I’m also going to make sure that they keep up with those programs after they’re out of the Fulton County Jail. It’s almost like them being on probation; we’re gonna keep up with them to make sure that they stay on track so they will not end up back at the Fulton County Jail. That will bring the incarceration rate down and bring tax dollars down also, so the taxpayers won’t have to spend money on incarcerated people.
What is your leadership style?
My leadership style is a law enforcement CEO. I have the business acumen and also the law enforcement experience to handle that side of it. I’ve done the job. I worked in the jail division, the court division, and the law enforcement division of the sheriff’s office. As far as law enforcemen, nobody can tell me what to do as far as [how to run] the sheriff’s office… If I see a problem, I have a team of experts and myself that see the issues, the problems. Also the business acumen; I have a security company I have branded for the past 18 years. The sheriff’s office budget right now is almost a quarter of a billion dollars. You don’t want anyone in there with just a high school degree trying to manage that type of money. You need to know if someone else is in there doing some kind of proposal for your budget and a contract, and you should know how to read those contracts and analyze them yourself without relying on someone else. My badge was also tarnished, and that’s why I’m running. I want to bring that integrity and accountability … back to the sheriff’s office.
