Two days after a group of Fulton County public defenders filed an emergency habeas petition to have 183 pretrial detainees who couldn’t make bond released from the Fulton County Jail over coronavirus fears, a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights—which filed an amicus brief supporting the effort—said it appears to be bearing fruit.    

“It’s my understanding that approximately 30 inmates have been released since the petition was filed, which suggests filing the petition was the right course of action,” said the SCHR’s Sarah Geraghty.