By Uriel J. Garcia
The Santa Fe New Mexican
SANTA FE, New Meixco — The state Department of Corrections restarted its inmate work detail program Aug. 12, five days after Raymond Ramirez walked away from a crew, prompting an eight-hour manhunt that shut down part of Santa Fe.
Ramirez, 59, of Las Vegas, N.M., an inmate at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe, was part of a landscaping crew working at the Willie Ortiz Building in the 2600 block of Cerrillos Road. A witness told police she had seen him take off his orange jumpsuit and walk away from the six-member crew. He was captured by police seven and a half hours later at a north-side home, where he was looking for a man he had served time with in prison.
State Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said the following day that the work program would be suspended until officials evaluated the trustees and the program.
On Friday, Corrections spokeswoman Alex Tomlin said officials are still reviewing the department’s policies. She also said that “less than a dozen” inmates were working in different parts of the state as of Friday.
After the escape, officials began vetting all the inmate work crews and this week cleared a group for outside labor.
Ramirez is currently placed in a maximum-security unit.
Major traffic snarls developed Aug. 7 as police closed streets in an area between Cerrillos Road and Agua Fría Street, as far south as Camino Carlos Rey and as far north as Osage Avenue.
Residents in the area hunkered down in their homes while armed officers and dogs searched yards, driveways, buildings and vehicles. Police and television news helicopters circled above. In some cases, officers searched the trunks of cars that attempted to pass through the area.
Ramirez was serving time for convictions on charges of aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon, concealing identity and larceny of stolen property. In 2007, a Las Cruces judge sentenced him to 19 years in prison. After receiving credit for good behavior, he was expected to be released next spring, Tomlin said.
Court records show Ramirez also was convicted in 1998 in Albuquerque of burglarizing a house and escaping from jail. And his criminal history includes a 1982 conviction for armed robbery.