‘It just devastates the entire region’
Colfax residents: Springer prison closure would be catastrophic
SPRINGER — The people of Springer, a rural ranching town near the New Mexico-Colorado border, are worried about the town’s future.
They aired those concerns this week when officials from around Colfax County attended a town hall with New Mexico Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero.
Tafoya Lucero announced March 26 the department would begin preliminary planning to close the Springer Correctional Center, one of the main sources of jobs in the region.
At the often-tense town hall meeting Thursday at the Springer High School gymnasium, Tafoya Lucero told a group of around 15 local public officials that population decline at the women’s prison has been a concern for years. The Corrections Department has said the facility is currently at 50% capacity.
“I have to figure out what’s best for the agency as a whole, knowing that we’re going to continue to see this decline in the population,” she said.
She also said the facility, first constructed in 1909, is in need of numerous infrastructure upgrades that would cost millions of dollars. She added the department will maintain normal operations and continue hiring to fill the prison’s 14 vacancies.
But residents argued the closure could have a catastrophic economic impact in a region already in the midst of decline.
“The corrections facility... has always been the lifeblood of this community,” Colfax County Commissioner Bob LeDoux said.
Colfax County’s population peaked at around 21,000 a century ago, but the closure of major industries has reduced that to just under 12,000 today, according to U.S. Census records.
Much of the northeastern part of the state has seen similar population declines as well.
Some school districts in the region have as few as 60 students in all grades.
Many fear closing the prison could make matters even worse.
“Rural communities continue to get hurt by acts like this,” County Commissioner Bret Wier said during the meeting. “I’m glad you’re finding jobs for people, but that doesn’t help this community.”
Small business owners are also worried about the impact they may face if the prison were to close.
Jenell Ross, whose family owns a grocery store and several gas stations in the area, said they’re already anticipating having to cut hours for employees. Some of her stations, she said, serve prison employees on their morning commute, but that revenue is expected to dry up completely.
“It just devastates the entire northeast region,” Ross said. “I don’t know who will stay open, actually.”
Some questioned the inmate population decline at the prison, arguing the COVID-19 pandemic led to a decrease in prison populations and numbers could rise again.
Tafoya Lucero told the Journal the decline in inmate population had been occurring before the pandemic and that the department expects the number to keep dropping. She said department officials had been discussing options on Springer a month prior to the announcement.
As it stands, there is no timeline for the facility’s closure and “nothing’s off the table,” Tafoya Lucero said. She said the department is considering if the prison can be converted into a behavioral health center facility or something else.
The secretary also said future meetings with community members would take place, but she didn’t provide a timeline.
Springer Mayor Boe Lopez told the Journal he left the meeting feeling disappointed. The fears of residents were not eased, he added.
“We’re talking generations of families that have worked out there,” he said. “The tone that I got from the meeting is the decision is made — it’s just coming over here to try to ease the pain for us.”
The prison has frequently come under fire from advocates for allegedly substandard conditions and poor treatment of inmates. Several lawsuits have been filed alleging a pattern of sexual assault and harassment by prison staff against inmates. A former guard has been charged with raping two inmates.
However, Tafoya Lucero said allegations of sexual assault did not factor into any decision to close the facility.
Lopez said he believes issues with the prison stem from negligence by the state — and the region — for years.
“They’ve taken everything from us and left us with nothing (except) to be reliant on this facility,” he said.