Closing Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC)

Like many U.S. cities over the last year, Atlanta has seen a marked increase in interpersonal violence. The City has also experienced waves of social unrest in response to police violence and misconduct. These together have called into question the presumption that increased policing and punitive approaches (jails and prisons), are effective responses to crime. HIT Strategies was commissioned to conduct this research on behalf of the Communities Over Cages Campaign to understand Atlanta municipal voters’ perceptions of safety generally and, more specifically, their attitudes toward closing the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC).

We most clearly see this in support for closing ACDC and replacing it with a Center for Equity and Wellness. A majority of Atlanta residents support closing ACDC with no other information provided. Given basic facts about ACDC, support for closing ACDC grew to a super-majority.

These findings are from a proprietary survey conducted by HIT Strategies on behalf of Community over Cages. HIT Strategies conducted this survey through live phone dialing (landline/cell) with a population of 500 likely municipal voters across the Atlanta area of Georgia. The survey fielded from July 22nd – July 30th, 2021, and the margin of error is +/-4.4% with a confidence level of 95% margin of error is higher among subgroups.

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