SANTA FE, NM – The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico today asked
a state court to force Corrections Secretary Joe Williams to relieve
overcrowding at the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants.
According to the ACLU, inmates are being housed in public communal areas that
are not designed for long-term custody, causing increased tensions and fighting
among inmates as well as the backup of sewage into living areas.
“We gave the Corrections Department every opportunity to fix the
situation and it failed to relieve the overcrowding,” said ACLU of New Mexico
Executive Director Peter Simonson. “The current conditions seriously
threaten the health and safety of the inmates and of the staff. If it
takes a court order to force the DOC to resolve the problem, then so be
it.”
Specifically, the ACLU of New Mexico is demanding that the
Department of Corrections comply with the Corrections Population Control Act,
passed by the state legislature in 2002. When the inmate population
of a correctional facility “exceeds 100 percent of rated capacity” for a period
of 60 consecutive days, the law requires the Corrections Secretary to notify a
special legislatively created commission and provide it with a list of
nonviolent offenders who are within 180 days of their projected release
date. The Commission is required to approve people on this list for
emergency release to relieve population pressures within the
facility.
“Our records show that the population at the
women’s prison has exceeded the 600-person capacity by 60 inmates for more than
60 days,” said ACLU of New Mexico legal co-director Maureen Sanders. “The
Secretary has a legal obligation to convene the commission, or he is
short-circuiting the wishes of the legislature. The legislature acted
responsibly in addressing the overpopulation problem and the safety problems
that result by requiring that nonviolent offenders be released. As a
society we have a responsibility to ensure that our inmates are housed in safe
facilities.”
The ACLU expects that the court will set a hearing
within the next 10 days. State Representative Mimi Stewart and the New
Mexico Women’s Justice Project have joined the ACLU in the lawsuit.
The ACLU court papers are online at: www.aclu.org/prison/conditions/24937lgl20060404.html