By Patrick Lohmann
Albuquerque Journal
NEW MEXICO — What started as a four-month audit of current inmates at state prisons to determine mistaken releases has expanded into what Corrections officials call an “incredible undertaking,” a study that will examine the files of more than 25,000 inmates released from prison since 2006.
The three-phase, retroactive study is a response to what Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said was a culture among state prison employees that emphasized clearing beds over promoting public safety.
Additionally, the initial audit revealed mistaken, early releases of high-profile violent criminals, including convicted heroin and meth dealer and murder suspect Chris Blattner, 32, and Torreon cabin murder accomplice Lawrence Nieto, 35.
“Once we began to get a handle on the problem, we began to realize that this might be more pervasive than I might accept,” Marcantel told the Journal recently.
The initial audit, which cost $120,000, examined more than 6,000 current inmate files to see if an inmate was overstaying his or her sentence. Also, the first audit relied on district attorneys that serve each state prison to determine if an inmate had been released early.
This retroactive study, however, will be entirely under the Corrections Department’s purview.
The study’s first phase will review more than 3,400 files for inmates released between September 2010 and 2012.
The second and most laborintensive phase, expected to begin in January, will look at 15,000 files for inmates released between September 2010 and January 2006, when the last similar audit was completed.
Corrections employees will prioritize the files based on perceived violent crime risk, and will first comb through files of young, gang-affiliated men with a history of violence.
“The public’s got a right to know,” Marcantel said. “It’s a public safety issue.”
The first two phases are expected to take until April and will cost $400,000, primarily in overtime pay. Those costs will be recouped elsewhere in the budget, Marcantel said.
The third phase will look into the 10,000 or so inmates who Marcantel said pose the low- est public safety risk, though budget constraints will determine when it begins.
The study was a necessary step for Corrections to prevent future mistakes, Marcantel said, and rebuild public trust after the early releases of Nieto and Blattner, in addition to several other inmates.
One such inmate, Anthony Madrid, 38, had been out of prison for three months after a burglary conviction and was set to be promoted from part-time to full-time work at a local church when the Corrections Department realized Aug. 1 that he still had eight years left on his sentence, Madrid’s family members said.
Madrid was arrested at home in front of his 4-yearold daughter just hours after checking in with his probation officer in compliance with the conditions of his release, said Madrid’s fatherin-law, Gilbert Cabrera.
“I took him in that morning to check in,” Cabrera said. “That afternoon they came to his house and arrested him.”
Copyright 2012 Albuquerque Journal