By Dan McKay
Albuquerque Journal
BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. — A federal judge has ordered Bernalillo County to prepare a plan to bring the jail population down to design capacity and to take a series of other steps to improve conditions for inmates.
Senior U.S. District Judge James A. Parker gave the county until July 1 to submit the plan and until Sept. 1 to carry out most of its components. A court-appointed expert in corrections, Manuel Romero, will help craft the plan.
Parker’s four-page order notes that the county has agreed voluntarily to meet the deadlines.
The Metropolitan Detention Center now holds about 2,530 inmates, roughly 300 more than its design capacity of 2,236.
The County Commission this month authorized the jail to relieve overcrowding by shipping inmates to jails elsewhere in New Mexico and in Texas. That hasn’t started yet.
The plan ordered up by Parker requires more than just transferring inmates.
He wants the plan to address:
Increasing the out-of-cell time for inmates in segregation units, from five hours a week to seven. Many inmates already get more time than that. The general population, for example, gets about eight hours a day in out-of-cell time, the county said in court documents.
Eliminating the practice of holding three inmates in a cell designed for two.
Ensuring that the subpopulations assigned to certain units - female inmates, for example - aren’t overcrowded.
Working with Romero, the court-appointed expert, to ensure there are enough corrections officers and case managers in each jail pod.
Hiring a full-time person with experience in “community-based alternatives to incarceration” to lead efforts to reduce the jail population. The county now has about 260 inmates who are monitored through a house-arrest like program called “community custody.”
Parker’s order is part of a civil-rights lawsuit over conditions inside the county jail system. The suit was filed in 1995, and the parties are trying to get it resolved for good.
Much of the county’s work to reduce the jail population happens outside the courtroom, of course. The Legislature recently passed a bill, for example, establishing a county Criminal Justice Review Commission to make recommendations on whether local laws need to be changed.
County Attorney Randy Autio said he looks “forward to working with the courts and our other criminal-justice partners on helping solve the population issue.”
Copyright 2013 Albuquerque Journal