Inmates protest care at Cibola County prison

Spokeswoman disputes accounts inmates aren’t receiving medical treatment

One thing seemed clear: A protest broke out at a Western New Mexico prison Wednesday.

Beyond that, there were conflicting accounts.

Family members of two people detained at the Cibola County Correctional Center, a prison in Milan that predominantly houses federal inmates, said detainees barricaded themselves in their cellblock after officers denied them medical treatment for symptoms associated with COVID-19.

One said officers sprayed the area with a substance that caused inmates to choke and have trouble breathing.

CoreCivic, theTennessee-based private company that operates the facility, said those accounts were false.

Detainees were protesting the fact that they had been put into novel coronavirus-related quarantine, a spokeswoman said, adding it was untrue officers denied medical treatment or sprayed inmates with a substance.

“The allegation that detainees with COVID-19 symptoms have not received medical treatment is patently false,” CoreCivic spokeswoman Amanda Gilchrist said.

The protest comes as prisons, such as the Cibola County facility, in New Mexico have become the site of growing outbreaks of COVID-19 cases.

The state reported 170 new cases in one day last week at the Cibola facility, leading to New Mexico’s highest oneday total on record.

The prison’s total number of reported cases was 291 as of Wednesday, while the Otero County Prison Facility, which houses state and federal inmates, had 749 cases.

Armando Perez of Chamizal said his brother, an inmate at the Cibola prison, told him by phone inmates at the facility protested because they weren’t being treated for “colds and flus.”

“The inmates have taken the cellblock hostage because none of them are getting medical treatment for their colds or flus,” said Perez, 29.

Meanwhile, Lavina Ransom, a 42-year-old resident of Albuquerque, supplied an audio recording of a phone call in which her daughter, who also is an inmate, said prisoners were protesting because they had been in quarantine for 20 days.

KaLani Uehara, 22, told her mother

on the call that a fire alarm and sprinklers went off, and officers “came rushing in” and sprayed “cans of some substance,” according to the recording.

“Everyone started choking, coughing. Some people fainted,” Uehara said on the recording. “Some people are throwing up and I feel like I need to as well.”

Gilchrist of CoreCivic called that account “false and contradictory.”

She said in an email six detainees were involved in the protests and they were all reviewed by medical staff afterward.

Gilchrist said the six detainees “blocked the pod door, covered the windows and cameras, and refused to comply with verbal directives provided by facility staff.”

She added, “Facility staff successfully restored order, with no injuries occurring as a result of this incident to detainees or staff.”

The company has “rigorously followed” the guidance of state and federal health authorities in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gilchrist said.

“With regard to healthcare, CoreCivic takes seriously our obligation to provide high-quality healthcare to those in our care at Cibola County Correctional Center,” Gilchrist wrote in the email.

Mass COVID-19 testing of staff and detainees was conducted at the facility during the week of July 20, and medical staff members check symptoms of detainees on a daily basis, the company said.

The Cibola detention center holds detainees or inmates of three major entities: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service and Cibola County, which contracts with the facility to hold its prisoners.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement referred an inquiry Wednesday to the U.S. Marshals Service, which in turn referred questions to CoreCivic.