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A glowing audit of operations at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center should put an end to Mayor Martin Chavez's criticisms, jail leaders say.

The audit by the American Correctional Association completed on June 27 gave the jail almost perfect marks all around — including the management and budgeting that Chavez has publicly decried as fouled up.

Chavez vetoed a $9 million appropriation by the City Council to to the county to help fund the jail's $52 million upkeep. The council overrode the veto — a first for the mayor.

Chavez told The Tribune in an editorial meeting this month he was so concerned about mismanagement at the jail that he wanted to audit its budget to make sure city funds weren't going to buy "mukluks" for inmates.

He said he would push for oversight of jail management since the county accepted the city funds.

John Dantis, the county's director of public safety, said there is nothing to hide in the jail budget or management. The audit proves it, he said.

"A major part of it (the audit) deals with management and operations, so the outcome (of the audit) speaks for itself," Dantis said.

The audit, the detention center's first, concluded on June 27. It comes nearly a year after the city severed its support for the jail and the county took over management. The facility and its predecessor had been jointly run for years before that.

The audit found the jail met all but five of 362 criteria.

Two of the five involved the process for administrative hearings.

The other three dealt with, as expected by many, crowding at the facility.

The jail received failing marks for having too many people in each cell, too many people in the facility as a whole and not enough space in the prisoner segregation area, said Ron Torres, chief of corrections at the jail.

Torres said the overall score of the facility was 98.3 percent.

"This is a big deal for the Metropolitan Detention Center," Torres said. Despite the crowding conditions and decrease in corrections staff, ". . . we have been able to provide high, high quality of service," he said.

The positive audit also saves the county $300,000 on insurance, he said.

Dantis, in light of criticism from Chavez, said the audit was welcome news.

"I particularly like the part where the audits said how well our tax dollar is being spent," Dantis said. "The community should be proud."