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NM ACLU chapter seeks jail oversight committee

“In recent months there have been recurring issues which appear to infringe on the rights of the detainees,” said William Hudson, president of the local ACLU chapter

By Randal Seyler
Silver City Sun-News

SILVER CITY — The Southwestern Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union-New Mexico has begun a petition signature drive to request that the Grant County Board of County Commissioners establish an oversight committee for the Grant County Detention Center.

Members of the local ACLU were in Gough Park on Saturday collecting signatures.

“In recent months there have been recurring issues which appear to infringe on the rights of the detainees,” said William Hudson, president of the local ACLU chapter and a resident of the Mimbres Valley.

“Among those concerns were the lack of adequate health care, lack of access to legal materials and information, and apparent failure of the detention center to follow its own inadequate procedure concerning detainee grievances,” Hudson said.

The proposed committee would replace a previous Grant County Detention Center Advisory Committee which was allowed to expire, Hudson said.

Grant County Detention Center Deputy Administrator Joseph Andazola said the jail administration would not have any objections to an advisory committee being established.

“Anything that would help would be good,” Andazola said. He added that to his knowledge, there had not been an advisory committee in place since he joined the detention center staff in 2011.

County Manager Charlene Webb was not available for comment on Friday.

Through occasional visitations and discussions with both detainees and the detention center administration, the ACLU Chapter has attempted to resolve ongoing problems of health, safety, and civil liberties of those incarcerated, Hudson said.

“There have been a number of instances,” Hudson said on Thursday. “We have been making visits to the detention center on an irregular basis, speaking with inmates and getting complaints.”

Hudson said a number of issues involving healthcare have come to the attention of the ACLU members.

“One inmate’s problem was such that we had to involve the state ACLU with which we are affiliated,” Hudson said. “The inmate was diagnosed in March with a dental tumor or cyst, and Gila Regional Medical Center recommended oral surgery as soon as possible.”

After three months, the inmate is still waiting to be treated.

“We’ve been trying to get that resolved,” Hudson said. “If it has been recently resolved, that fact hasn’t been reported to us.”

Another concern the ACLU has are reports that inmates are being denied access to the jail’s legal library.

“Inmates and corrections officers have both admitted to us that they are not allowing inmates access to the legal library,” Hudson said.

“A lot of people have misconceptions about detainees at the county jail,” Hudson added. “A vast majority of them have not been convicted of anything, they are just people who are sitting there waiting on trial.”

Hudson said typically about a quarter of the detainees in the county detention center are there for failure to pay fines.

“In effect, it has become a debtor’s prison, which is unconstitutional,” he said.

Access to legal information is important for inmates, especially indigent inmates who are depending on public defenders, Hudson said.

Another concern the ACLU has about the Grant County facility stems from reports of inmate grievances not being carried beyond the cell block.

“One of our biggest concerns that we have is the lack of an adequate grievance procedure for inmates to try and rectify problems they are having,” Hudson said. “We have recommended on many occasions that the county at least come up with some sort of auto-copy, so the inmates can keep copy of their grievance for themselves.

Hudson said inmates file grievances but they never get a response back from the administration. “For all they know, their grievances never reach administration.”

“Some of corrections officers have admitted that grievances never make it out of cellblock and they wind up in a garbage can,” Hudson said. “If there is no way to track grievances, then problems are going to continue.”

Luna County Detention Center has all the paperwork computerized, and the administration is able to track all the pertinent information, including inmate grievances. However, Grant County has not entered the computer age yet. “We’ve been told that it is too expensive,” Hudson said.

“For the past three years, since the new building has been open, we’ve been told Grant County is going to do same thing as Luna County, but every time we go, we get told the same story – ‘We’re working on it.’ It has been a long time coming.”

Hudson said he wrote a letter to Grant County Detention Center Administrator Mike Carrillo in June expressing the ACLU’s frustration at the lack of changes being made in the detention center, but he never heard back from Carrillo.

Since the group received no response, they felt it was necessary for Grant County to authorize a new detention oversight committee, and started the petition drive.

The ACLU board will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Little Toad Creek Brewery on Bullard Street to discuss moving ahead with their plans to establish an oversight committee.

“Our local ACLU chapter has been trying to maintain a friendly, cooperative atmosphere with the detention center’s administration, and we’ve tried to resolve issues, but it should be a community organization, a county committee doing this rather than having us have to be there all the time,” Hudson said.

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