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Attorneys in Bernalillo County seek new sanctions against county jail

By Maggie Shepard
Originally published 08:00 a.m., June 13, 2007
Updated 11:53 a.m., June 13, 2007

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The inmate population at the Bernalillo County jail has reached such a high level that attorneys in a decade-old overcrowding lawsuit have decided to ask a federal judge to revive sanctions.

Brian Pori, one of the Albuquerque attorneys representing inmates in the 1995 lawsuit, said he and other plaintiffs attorneys have not sought sanctions against the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center because public safety officials have been working in good faith to bring the population down.

But now, after a year of steady population growth marching toward yesterday's all-time high of more than 2,700 inmates, he is drafting a proposal for possible sanctions, he said.

Options he could seek from U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez of Santa Fe include:

• Fining the county for exceeding the jail's capacity and using that money to pay for an inmate ombudsman.

• Mandating felons being held on probation or parole violations be shipped to state prisons.

• Releasing inmates who are deemed safe.

John Dantis, the county's director of public safety, said he hopes the judge will see that he and other jail officials have been working to fix a problem that's beyond their control.

Dantis acknowledged the crowding has worsened, but said conditions aren't so bad that sanctions are needed.

"The county has continually extended itself to make this work," he said.

Pori and Ron Torres, the jail's chief of corrections, used the same language to describe the causes of the crowding. The jail, both say, is the metro area's "largest homeless shelter, largest detox center and largest mental health facility."

Despite the addition of a 188-bed psychiatric wing, the population has climbed to record levels, leaving jail officials and Pori astounded and corrections officers exhausted.

The jail, which opened in 2002, was meant to house about 2,100 inmates. Last year the population typically ranged from 2,300 to 2,400 inmates. The county took sole custody of jail operations in July and started putting plans in place to reduce the population.

In November, it launched a campaign to increase its Community Custody Program, which, with a judge's blessing, moves nonviolent inmates back to their homes for the remainder of their sentence.

Reluctant state and Metro Court judges were shown statistics that proves the program doesn't put violent offenders into the community and that few program participants - just nine between July 2006 and April 30 - have been charged with new offenses.

Program participation is up from an daily average of 316 last year to more than 400 today.

Torres told County Commissioners on Tuesday that the goal is to increase the use of the community release program substantially, but the jail is still facing hurdles from some judges.

Pori blames the crowding squarely on the court system. "Metropolitan Court judges, and to a lesser extent the District Court judges, are responsible for this problem," he said.

Torres wouldn't go that far. The number of arrests hasn't increased dramatically from last year, he said, and jail bookings are flat.

"Obviously, we are holding them longer," Torres said.

Metro Court spokeswoman Janet Blair said Metro judges aren't the problem.

"Our judges sentence according to law," Blair said. "While our judges are sympathetic to the jail, they place community safety as a higher priority."

Torres said every player in the system, not just judges, must shift to fix the problem. He's asked police to "use their discretion" about whom they arrest, the courts to "process them quickly," and the county and city to provide more social services to address the root causes of homelessness and mental health problems.

He said every player in the system must shift to fix the problem. He's asked police to "use their discretion" about whom they arrest, the courts to "process them quickly," and the county and city to provide more social services to address the root causes of homelessness and mental health problems.

Contributing to the crowding, Torres and Dantis say, are the duration of stay and a substantial number of repeat offenders - 45 percent of those booked in the last five years. Many of those repeat offenders are people with mental health and homelessness issues, they say.

Torres and his staff are in the process of crunching statistics from the last five years they hope will show the pattern of such arrests.

So far, they've located five top "frequent fliers," including Walter Beal.

Each of the top five has been arrested at least 40 times in the last five years, Torres said. In the last 10 years, Beal, 56, has had more than 100 run-ins with police, according to court records.

Beal's history of charges includes roadside soliciting, possession of drugs, obstructing traffic, criminal damage to property and numerous failure-to-appear warrants. His jail stints ranging from two or three days to 180 days have cost taxpayers $56,000, Torres said.

Though Torres wouldn't say if Beal has mental health or homelessness issues, he did say the pattern of arrests is common for the population and is one of the main hurdles in reducing the jail population.

"The message that needs to go out, in my mind, is it's a community issue. It's not just a jail issue," he said.

The top five frequent flyers, Torres said, cost taxpayers a minimum of $237,000 over the last five years, and doesn't include medical services received at the jail or the time of police and court staff.

The jail this year is operating on a $54 million budget. Of that, $3.5 million is for housing 100 inmates in other facilities to alleviate crowding in Albuquerque.

Though Torres said no spike in assaults on officers or among inmates has been noted, corrections union President Lt. Stephen Perkins said officers are exhausted by the crowding.

"We've just been lucky," Perkins said. "We're right on the line. It could go bad any second."

With about 60 vacancies out of 332 positions, officers are working mandatory overtime for an average 62-hour week, Perkins said.

Pori said he acknowledges the strains over which the jail has no control, but said people housed there - some of whom have only been charged, and not yet proven guilty - shouldn't suffer unnecessary conditions such as cramped cells, lack of toilet paper, smaller portions at meals or minimal medical care.

Those conditions aren't as rampant as they were when the lawsuit was first filed, Pori said, which is why the monitoring team watching the jail during the last year hasn't sounded emergency alarms.

Still, the jail's best efforts haven't been able to make a difference in the population, Pori said.

Any proposed sanctions, if approved by Vazquez, would be only a temporary fix to a broken system, Pori said. The real change needs to come in the court system with prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges who recommit themselves to being efficient and productive, Pori said.

Torres wants the system fixed, too, he said. "Everyone is screaming for answers. The old way of thinking - lock them up and throw away the key - isn't working. The question is: What is the community doing?"