‘Behind the Bars’ expands its depiction of NM prisons

“This is prison. Given the right circumstances, these inmates will kill you.”

This is what cadets hear when training to be corrections officers in the state of New Mexico.

For a second year, A&E’s series “Behind the Bars: Rookie Year” will give audiences a deeper look at what it’s like to be a corrections officer in New Mexico.

The first season focused on the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe. For the second season, production took place in Santa Fe and expanded to the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Las Cruces and Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants.

The season premiere will air at 8 tonight on A&E.

“It’s been a really rewarding season and getting to know the folks,” said Greg Henry, an executive producer. “Being in the facilities, you see the real challenges of the system. With expanding the number of correctional facilities, the stories are more layered and textured. We’ve also expanded to more custody levels which helped us capture the different challenges.”

The series zeros in on the New Mexico Corrections Department, considered by

some as one of the most notoriously dangerous prison systems in the country.

The prison system holds more than 7,000 inmates but is managed by less than 1,000 corrections officers.

Intensifying the situation, one of the most influential prison gangs, Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico, has declared war on law enforcement.

Henry said these rookies in the course of filming discover drug lines into the facility, intercept communications from the outside and confront hit plans on the Secretary of Corrections Gregg Marcantel and an attack on rookie officer Aaron Purto.

“They will be walking into some of the most dangerous, most difficult environments a human being could ever choose to voluntarily,” Marcantel said. “Organized prison gangs have wreaked havoc on New Mexico prison systems. We cannot let that influence continue to grow.”

The series expands its territory to Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility, a prison that has seen two murders in the last 18 months among its inmates, 85 percent of whom are involved in gangs within the compound.

There, Lilly Rodriguez said she has wanted to be in law enforcement ever since she was a kid but is consistently underestimated for her size; she stands at five feet tall, 102 pounds and is required to wear a child-sized stab vest.

At the Western New Mexico facility, Christian Sandoval recently gave up a rodeo scholarship for a steadier paycheck but questions his decision when he is tasked with overseeing level three inmates; the majority of whom have life sentences and nothing to lose.

And at the Penitentiary of New Mexico featured in season one, corrections officers Andrew Cordova, Cohen Mangin and the seemingly meek Ariel Montoya become more confident in their positions.

Henry says production took place in summer 2015 and filmed through the fall and into spring 2016.

“The toughest part about this season was making the transition to more facilities clear,” Henry said. “I didn’t want to confuse the viewer. The season is more episodic and that’s in part to the great access we have gotten in the facilities. We wouldn’t be able to capture the rawness of what it’s like to be a corrections officer.”