Site of 1980 State Pen Riot Open to Public

Thirty-three people were killed, some of them horrifically, in the riot that went on for 36 hours before State Police and National Guard units regained control of the prison from inmates. Eight guards had been taken hostage and some were severely injured. Parts of the building were burned, others flooded. One of the dead prisoners had been decapitated with an electric grinder.

Overcrowding and a long history of mismanagement – including understaffing by poorly trained guards, capricious enforcement of the rules, physical abuse of inmates, lack of educational programs and much more – lay behind the riot.

Three years before, an inmate had filed a federal lawsuit against penitentiary officials over conditions at the prison. Post-riot, that lawsuit resulted in court-ordered federal supervision of New Mexico prisons that lasted two decades.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Rosie Sais said the idea for the prison tours followed Gov. Susana Martinez’s request that all state government departments organize public events in connection with the state’s Centennial celebration this year.

“We decided to open up our historical building,” she said. “It was the location of the riot, but we will be putting the emphasis on the changes and improvements that have been made in the prison system.”

The hour-and-a-half guided tours will include historical information about New Mexico’s prisons, as well as about post-riot reforms.

“We’ll be talking about the Duran Consent Decree and how that changed inmate rights and all the things that changed post-riot,” Sais said, referring to the federal court supervision order named after Dwight Duran, the inmate who filed the original complaint.

The free tours begin Thursday and then continue on the second Friday of every month except October, when the tours will be held on Halloween. For more information, visit www.corrections.state.nm.us and click on “Centennial Partners.”
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal