Is MDC's policy banning paper books legal? Audit requested to question constitutionality

Patrick Hibbard remembers sitting in solitary confinement at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, a 22-year-old with only four walls for company.

When the book cart came by, he plucked a “crappy” romance novel from its shelves.

“I ate that thing up — because I needed some kind of stimulation,” Hibbard said at a Wednesday Detention Facility Advisory Board meeting.

Thirty years later, after several stints in jail and a doctorate degree, Hibbard is now a member of a civilian committee that oversees how MDC policies affect people incarcerated there, just as he once was.

After a 7-1 vote Wednesday, the board called for an independent audit of a new policy that removed almost all physical books and paper possessions from inmates earlier this year.

Hibbard called the policy unconstitutional and a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

“Sitting there with just the wall is torture,” Hibbard said. “It’s literally torture.”

MDC officials defended the policy and said it was necessary to stop the flow of drugs and other contraband, which they say inmates were hiding inside of literature and other paper belongings.

Instead of physical belongings, inmates were given tablet computers for every cell to look at scanned letters, photographs and access entertainment. According to past Journal reporting, some have said that there aren’t enough tablets, that access is limited to 30 minutes per day and that the free ebooks are dense volumes like the 600-plus page “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville.

After questions from the board, MDC Warden Kai Smith announced that the jail will be providing a tablet to each inmate by the first quarter of next year.

“We have the finances, it doesn’t cost the taxpayer anything,” Smith said. He said he hopes the tablets will be available by the new year, at the earliest.

Despite the announcement, the board moved forward with the audit to evaluate the policy’s constitutionality and effectiveness at preventing contraband.

The audit is a small win, Hibbard said and a step toward making conditions better for inmates, though Bernalillo County will still need to agree and follow through with it.

Hibbard said he couldn’t imagine serving time, days in and out, without the reprieve of books or any mental stimulation. He joined the board to advocate for incarcerated people and as proof that they too can put the steel bars behind them.

“I can never make up for what I did,” Hibbard said, talking about his crime. “But I can try to help other people.”

In 1997, Hibbard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder of Herman Sandoval, 50, whom he and two other teenagers had mugged and then killed outside of Bernalillo four years prior.

The man had only $1 in his pocket at the time of his death, according to past Journal reporting.

The trio dumped his body in a ditch, leading authorities to initially believe Sandoval had frozen to death before an autopsy was performed. Years later, someone talked, which led authorities to Hibbard in Florida. Hibbard was extradited back to New Mexico.

Sandoval would be 83-years-old if he was alive today. Sandoval’s obituary and living family members couldn’t be located in archives.

“It was devastating,” Hibbard said. “A big part of the devastation was that my actions helped kill a person. It was one solid reason I continued to use substances — to mask that guilt. Here at the same time, Herman was a father, someone’s husband.”

At the time of the killing, Hibbard could only think far enough ahead as his next drink, by the age of 18 he would start shaking if he didn’t.

After Hibbard got out, his substance abuse worsened until it landed him back in jail several times before treatment finally stuck. After that he went to Central New Mexico Community College and years later graduated with a doctorate and became a public health researcher.

“My whole professional goal,” Hibbard said, “is to make things easier for people who are like me.”