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The squat, bald detainee wanted to know who was in charge.

Warden Brick Tripp stepped forward to address the detainee's complaint on July 3 about excessive heat in a section of the Regional Correctional Center in Downtown Albuquerque.

As staffers worked to keep the building cool in triple-digit temperatures outside, the company that runs the lockup, Cornell Companies Inc., wanted to turn down the heat on a rash of complaints about the jail.

Civil and labor-rights attorneys in recent weeks have reported complaints from inmates about poor medical and mental health care, as well as crowded, dirty and uncomfortable conditions.

The charges stemmed from investigations that began after an immigrant in custody of the RCC died in September.

To respond to the allegations, the jail's warden and other Cornell officials on July 3 talked with reporters and gave a tour of the jail.

"We get concerned when we get complaints from anybody, but we believe we provide a safe and secure place for ICE and U.S. Marshals detainees," said George Killinger, managing director of operations for Cornell's adult secure institutions.

Overall, officials said they look into the complaints and provide excellent medical care at the facility, which Cornell has operated since 2004.

The building formerly was the Bernalillo County Detention Center. It was vacated in December 2002 after the Metropolitan Detention Center was completed on the West Side.

Cornell officials said medical personnel make five trips a day to the inmates' living areas. Detainees get medical exams after they arrive, and the facility has passed inspections by the Public Health Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The center has mental health professionals and a chaplain on duty, officials said. They also pointed out $7 million in improvements to the jail paid for by the giant private prisons company in Houston.

"We feel we provide superb medical access," Tripp said.

The building is owned by Bernalillo County and leased to Cornell for $1.5 million a year. It houses federal inmates for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service, as well as some county prisoners.

Most of the inmates are ICE detainees, waiting to be deported. Of the 864 people held on July 3, 650 were immigrants. The building is rated to hold 970 prisoners, Killinger said.

The tour came as the Department of Homeland Security reviews ICE's detention policies.

That job includes determining "whether ICE has maintained adequate oversight of this (the RCC) and other detention facilities, and whether the agency's policies are sufficient to decrease the likelihood of detainee fatalities throughout the county," according to department spokeswoman Tamara Faulkner.

The look isn't focused on individual cases, she said, but a broad review of ICE oversight on procedures for providing care and how deaths are reported.

The review began after it was revealed a Korean woman died at an Albuquerque hospital Sept. 11 while in the custody of the RCC. The woman repeatedly sought medical attention, according to lawyers familiar with the case.

ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said she couldn't comment on the death because it is an ongoing case, but said the agency "immediately reported the death through normal reporting procedures according to national detention standards."

Cornell officials declined to comment on the case or to say how many people have died in the jail since they took charge of the RCC.

That death and others in the country have the American Civil Liberties Union looking for more information. Last week, the group filed a public records request for details on what it says are the deaths of 62 immigrant detainees since 2004.

"We are deeply concerned about this shockingly high number of in-custody deaths in immigration detention," Elizabeth Alexander, director of the group's Prison Project, said in a statement.

"It raises serious concerns about about the quality of care provided to ICE detainees in their custody, and it is imperative that information about those deaths be revealed to the public."

The move also comes as New Mexico ACLU attorneys this week say they are hearing additional complaints, including showers that are too hot — something Cornell officials denied on July 3 — and a chronic refrain at the Downtown jail — crowding.

The attorneys say the center's Four West area in particular has had too many detainees, including up to 130 people at a time.

On July 3, it was hopping with 96 men doing everything imaginable to pass the time — playing cards and chess, sleeping, reading, talking on the phone, staring into space.

Killinger said the jail at times gets airlifts of more than 100 ICE detainees from across the country, which can mean temporarily close quarters. But, he said, the jail is not chronically overcrowded.

The jail's population is fluid. On the night of July 2, Bernalillo County took out 23 inmates it had at the RCC. The county puts its "overflow" inmates from the Metropolitan Detention Center in the RCC when there is space.

County Public Safety Director John Dantis said it's cheaper to hold detainees in places like the Cibola County Correctional Center, which charges $50 a night, than the RCC, which charges about $55. Dantis said he believed the inmates moved this week went to Cibola.

It's not uncommon, Dantis said, for Cornell to ask the county to move its inmates.

The changing population also comes as the county is again under scrutiny in a 12-year-old jail-crowding lawsuit. While the lawsuit applies to the new Metro Detention Center and allows lawyers and judges to keep tabs on the conditions, detainee attorneys want the lawsuit to apply to the RCC, which they say is too crowded.

A federal judge is considering the request.