68 inmates transferred to ABQ jail to relieve overcrowding.

State corrections officials moved 68 female inmates from the New Mexico Women's Correctional Facility in Grants to the Regional Correctional Center in Albuquerque today, Corrections Department spokeswoman Tia Bland said in a news release.

The move was to "address the female inmate population growth" at the women's prison in Grants, Bland said.
The move also came on the day a state district judge in Santa Fe had ordered the Corrections Department to respond to a lawsuit on overcrowding at Grants filed last week by the American Civil Liberties Union and others.

The women are now being housed in the Regional Correctional Center -- the old City-County Jail at 4th and Roma NW in Downtown Albuquerque -- until some of the inmates can be moved to the new Camino Nuevo women's prison opens in June, Bland said.

The transferred inmates are classified as minimum- or levels one, two and three medium-security prisoners, Bland said in the release.

Camino Nuevo, which will be operated by Corrections Corporation of America on the site of a former juvenile facility in Albuquerque, will eventually house 192 minimum-security prisoners, Bland has said.

The ACLU last week filed suit in state District Court in Santa Fe, claiming Corrections Secretary Joe Williams and his department have ignored a 2002 state law aimed at easing overcrowding at the women's prison in Grants, according to an Albuquerque Journal report.

The lawsuit alleged that Williams failed to convene a commission empowered to grant early releases to nonviolent offenders who are nearing parole, the Journal reported.

Bland said at the time that the Camino Nuevo facility would help relieve overcrowding when it opened in June, but the ACLU and state Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that waiting for Camino Nuevo to open wouldn't solve the current overcrowding at Grants.

The lawsuit alleged that overcrowding had led to inmate fights, inmates sleeping in communal areas and backup of sewage into living areas, the Journal reported.

Bland told the Journal last week that there were 663 inmates at the Grants prison -- 50 more than the prison is designed for.

State District Judge James Hall ordered Williams to file a response by today and set a hearing on the lawsuit for April 18, the Journal said.

Your Name:

Your Email Address:

Rate this article:
Poor Great

Comment:

BOLD

"QUOTE"

UNDERLINE