The Fulton County Jail in Atlanta subjects inmates to “inhumane, violent and hazardous conditions” that threaten their safety, a US Justice Department official said Thursday, announcing the results of a 16-month investigation.

The Justice Department has found that egregious conditions at Georgia’s Fulton County Jail — including pest infestation, malnourishment, a lack of adequate medical care and rampant violence that contributed to multiple deaths — violate the constitutional rights of people in custody.

U.S. Justice Department officials said jail officials in Georgia’s most populous county violate the constitutional rights of people in their custody by failing to protect them from violence, using excessive force and holding them in filthy and unsafe conditions.

The U.S. Department of Justice says dangerous, unsanitary and deadly conditions at the troubled Fulton County jail violate inmates' constitutional rights. Why it matters: Fulton elected officials and Sheriff Pat Labat have quarreled for years over how to fix the overcrowded northwest Atlanta facility.

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - On Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia will hold a press conference to make a civil rights announcement.

A federal investigation has found that Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail is violating the civil rights of people in their custody by failing to protect them from violence, using excessive force, and holding them in filthy and unsafe conditions.

Justice Department finds that Georgia’s Fulton County fails to adequately protect jail inmates from violence

The DOJ launched a civil rights investigation into conditions at the Fulton County Jail after several inmates had died in a matter of weeks. One inmate, according to his family, was "eaten alive" by bed bugs.