By Deborah Baker
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Department of Corrections will collect $1.1 million from a private prison operator for contract violations related to understaffing, Secretary-designate Gregg Marcantel said Monday.
The GEO Group also has agreed to pump an additional $200,000 over the next year into recruiting staff for its Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs, Marcantel said.
The violations occurred since the beginning of this year, after Gov. Susana Martinez took office.
The penalties will be paid by reducing the state’s payments to the company for housing inmates during the rest of the current budget year, according to the secretary.
The administration of Martinez’s predecessor, Gov. Bill Richardson, chose not to collect penalties from private prison operators for such violations. That’s within the secretary’s discretion, under the contract.
A report in September 2010 by the Legislative Finance Committee said the state could have collected millions of dollars for excessive staff vacancies during Richardson’s administration.
The Lea County prison is a medium-security lockup for men. GEO also runs prisons in Santa Rosa and Clayton that house state inmates, but Marcantel said the worst staffing problem has been at Hobbs, where the prison competes with the oil industry for employees.
The secretary said the department plans to review staffing levels at private prisons every month to keep better track of possible violations.
“I think it’ll give incentive to get it corrected,” Marcantel said.
Copyright 2011 Albuquerque Journal