The Lewis R. Slaton courthouse is seen in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday. AFP

Unsafe. Unsanitary. Teeming with insects.

When Donald Trump surrenders on Thursday to face charges he tried to overturn the 2020 election he is expected to do so at an Atlanta jail where conditions are so notorious they are under investigation by the Justice Department.

The 77-year-old former president and the 18 co-defendants in the election racketeering case are to be booked at the Fulton County Jail, also known as the Rice Street Jail, according to the sheriff's office.

Standard booking procedure is for a defendant to be fingerprinted and to have a mugshot taken before they are released on bond — which has already been set at $200,000 in Trump's case.

Donald Trump

Trump did not have to undergo the indignity of having a mugshot taken during his three previous arrests this year: in New York on charges of paying hush money to a porn star, in Florida for mishandling top secret government documents and in Washington on charges of conspiring to upend his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

But Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat told reporters this month that when it comes to a booking at his jail, "it doesn't matter your status."

"We have a mug shot ready for you," Labat said.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and the other co-defendants have until noon (1600 GMT) on Friday to surrender voluntarily to the charges they conspired to overturn the billionaire's election loss to Biden in Georgia.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that he would be going to Atlanta on Thursday to be arrested, but did not give a time.

A television journalist reports from outside the Lewis R. Slaton courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday. AFP

In a fundraising appeal, he said it would take place at a jail "which has been described as a 'humanitarian crisis'" where "guards have collected over 1,000 shanks fashioned from the crumbling walls."

Two co-defendants in the racketeering case, Trump attorney John Eastman and Scott Hall, a bail bondsman, were booked at the Fulton County Jail on Tuesday and released on bond.

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office has set up a tight security perimeter around the facility, closing streets and restricting access.

"When Former President Trump surrenders: there will be a hard lockdown of the area surrounding the Rice Street Jail, meaning no ingress or egress during that time," the sheriff's office said in a statement.

Agence France-Presse