By C1 Staff
GRANTS, N.M. — Two Cibola County Detention Center officials were placed on paid leave Monday after an inmate rising caused about $75,000 in damages to the jail last month.
KOAT reports that the warden and chief of security for the facility are the officials on leave.
Lt. Michael Dodds has been named as interim director of the jail.
Those placed on leave were demoted to positions they’ve previously held and have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to decide whether to take the positions or leave. The most was made following an administrative audit that was recently completed.
The audit found a lack of communication between jail officials and the county. There were also an abnormal amount of resignations and terminations within the last four months.
Two inmates escaping from the jail by cutting through a perimeter fence in July also influenced the move. Those inmates were recaptured shortly after their escape, but officers should have been patrolling the fence.
The final factor was the riot, which happened after two inmates started an altercation with each other in an inmate housing pod last month.
Video shows three officers approaching the inmates, but things quickly got ugly. Despite using mace and subduing both inmates, after which they were both removed from the housing pod and inmate population, 60 other inmates began to destroy everything in their pods.
They ripped out plumbing fixtures, along with pipes; destroyed toilets and bunks; and bashed in windows during the uprising.
The riot only ended after officers dropped tear gas through ducts in the roof of the pods.
The jail will be upgrading its toilets to stainless steel for both sinks and toilets, along with reinforcing pod windows with bars and tint so inmates can’t collaborate to launch a future uprising.
There was a similar uprising in 2013 involving inmates in one of the same pods.