Majority of state inmates at facility infected

Officials share ramped-up strategy to thwart virus at additional corrections sites

COVID-19’s takeover of the Otero County Prison Facility is nearly complete.

As of Wednesday, 426 of the

539 state inmates at the privately operated prison in far Southern New Mexico had tested positive for the disease.

The prison also holds New Mexicans serving time on federal convictions — many related to drugs. There were 275 positive cases among those inmates, according to the state’s updated numbers.

It’s unclear what percentage of federal prisoners are infected because Management and Training Corp. — the private operator that runs both parts of the facility and an adjacent Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center — has declined to provide population numbers for federal inmates.

Three inmates from the prison facility have died from the virus.

The state Corrections and Health departments held a joint news conference Wednesday to discuss ramped up testing, sanitation and quarantining measures the state is taking to keep the virus from multiplying in Otero County and at its 10 other prison facilities, which the state reports have only 3 cases among them.

Officials outlined a variety of measures, including testing and quarantining all incoming prisoners at the Central Correctional Facility in Los Lunas for 14 days before placing them in any other state prisons, as

well as doubling inmates’ weekly issuance of hygiene and cleansing products.

Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero also said the state has gone from testing 25 percent of the Otero County employees for the virus each week to testing 100 percent each week.

Nevertheless, officials said the layout of the Otero prison — dormitory-style housing where inmates sleep in bunks no more than 3 feet apart — and the lack of standardized protocols across the state and federal wings are making it difficult to control the virus.

Tafoya Lucero said she has spoken to the warden and federal and MTC officials and implored them to adopt the same testing, sorting and quarantine standards as the state.

It is unclear whether that is happening.

“They are becoming more cooperative as we move forward,” Tafoya Lucero said, “but it’s a complicated situation to work with in that we do not know exactly what they were doing at the beginning.”

Asked why the state didn’t mandate MTC adopt the same standards as state-run facilities, Corrections Department spokesman Eric Harrison said it was a matter of jurisdiction.

“Although the federal side of the facility is still MTC, we do not contract with them for that portion and that is why their protocols or testing initiatives with the federal government may look different than ours,” Harrison wrote in an email. “With that in mind, we are still leveraging our partnership with them to attempt to enhance their protocols and preventive measures on their federal side in hopes that they will maintain NMCD’s standards.”

The Governor’s Office declined to say whether leveraging the partnership could mean the state was considering altering its relationship with MTC.

“I don’t know how I can be more clear. [The Corrections Department] directs their contractor (MTC) to follow procedures and protocols for inmates in their custody based on THEIR contract,” spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett wrote in an email. The feds and MTC have their own contract which NMCD has no control over.”

MTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. It has previously said it is “working diligently” to implement heath guidelines.

Tafoya Lucero said the state and federal wings of the prison each have their own employees. But keeping them apart outside working hours is outside the department’s control.

“Though they may not work in the same locations,” she said, “they socialize and congregate together. They are roommates, or they carpool together. There is still that human factor of people spending time with one another.”

Department of Health epidemiologist Chad Smelser said controlling outbreaks in congregate, close-quarter facilities such as prisons is problematic.

“This is a very sneaky virus. It’s efficient at moving around in populations and it’s particularly good in the congregate setting such as this,” he said. “But if you ask me, would you be able to fully control it in a setting like this, my answer would always be, I highly doubt it. … It’s very difficult if people can’t separate themselves fully. It’s just very difficult to control.”

Early on in the COVID-19 crisis, the American Civil Liberties Union and criminal defense attorneys began calling for the state to reduce inmate populations in hopes of blunting a potential outbreak.

Lujan Grisham and Tafoya Lucero rejected that strategy. Instead, the governor ordered the release of a narrow group of inmates who fit specific criteria and are within 30 days of their release dates.

About 71 inmates have been released early since that order went into effect in April.

Tafoya Lucero said the state’s current prison population of 6,200 inmates is about 80 percent of the system’s capacity, and the department is looking at ways to reduce the population to about 75 percent of capacity “through other means” — which she said could include relocating inmates to other facilities and working with the New Mexico Parole Board toward the early release of some inmates being held on parole violations.