Jail conditions questioned

The county, in turn, says it’s evaluating whether to ship some inmates to other jails in New Mexico to free up space.

The order by Senior U.S. District Judge James A. Parker is the latest twist in a long-running civil rights lawsuit over conditions inside the Bernalillo County jail system, first filed in 1995.

Zachary Ives, an attorney for the inmates, said the hearing will focus on “the dangers that the county creates by placing women who are incompatible in the same segregation housing unit.”

The area holds women in jail for minor offenses, women with a history of violence, women who aren’t yet classified, women in protective custody, women vulnerable as they withdraw from drugs and women in other categories, too, he said.

“The women who are detoxing and, at times, the unclassified women do not even have cells,” he said. “They sleep on plastic portable bunks on the floor in the day room.”

County Attorney Randy Autio said he couldn’t speak in detail about the case because of the pending court hearing.

“We maintain that it’s safe,” he said of the jail. “… The chief and folks would tell you they’d be much happier if they had more room, but we work with what we have the best we can.”

Parker has ordered the county and other defendants in the lawsuit to appear in court March 28. The hearing centers on whether female inmates with different risk or treatment classifications should be housed together.

“You will be afforded an opportunity to present evidence in support of your reasons, if any, why you should not be required to stop housing female residents, without classifications or with different classifications, in the same Segregation housing unit,” Parker said in the order.

Deputy County Manager Tom Swisstack said overcrowding is a factor. The county is looking at a variety of ways to reduce the jail population, including the transfer of some inmates to other institutions, probably elsewhere in the state, he said.

That could start around April 1, Swisstack said.

It’s not clear how many inmates would go or how much it would cost, he said.

As for the “classification” of inmates, Swisstack said there’s “probably some mixture” of female inmates with different classifications in the unit mentioned by the judge.

“But it doesn’t mean they can’t get along in that unit,” he said.

Women are kept entirely separate from male inmates.

The area in question has a “design capacity” of 64 inmates, but it can hold up to 120, with cots on the floor and other changes, jail spokeswoman Nataura Powdrell said. There are 63 female inmates in that pod now, she said.

Autio said overcrowding is the root cause of conditions inside the jail. Safety – both for the public and the inmates – remains a priority, he said.

The Metropolitan Detention Center is one of the nation’s largest jails. It was designed for 2,236 inmates, but has sometimes held 2,800.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal