A day after the Bernalillo County Detention Center barely squeaked under a court-ordered population limit deadline, jail director John Dantis said he's optimistic the lockup can continue to keep its numbers in check until a new jail opens up.
For months, the population of the main jail in Downtown Albuquerque has exceeded a 586-inmate monthly average mandated by U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez — often going over that limit by 200 or more inmates. But Vazquez in late September demanded the jail trim its population back to no more than 586 prisoners by October 30.
Dantis said recently that the final count at 11:30 p.m. was one prisoner under the limit.
Dantis also said Tuesday the jail must now again focus on adhering to Vazquez's 586-inmate monthly average, which has been in effect since August 1997. Although the population had crept back up to 603 prisoners as of 3:30 p.m., Dantis said he's hoping the new procedures the criminal-justice system enacted to drop the number — including the hiring of a pro tem judge who works inside the jail — will help BCDC keep under that monthly average.
A new West Side jail, which is planned to open in late October 2001, will initially have 1,536 available beds and will expand to 2,100 beds within a few months after it opens, Dantis said.
'Now, we roll up our sleeves and really try and maintain this count,' Dantis said.
Vazquez mandated the population limits as part of her ongoing work in a pending 1995 lawsuit on behalf of prisoners. In her ruling that set the Oct. 30 deadline, she wrote that 'inmates were sleeping on mattresses on the floors of individual cells, pods and dayrooms' and added that 'it was reported that some inmates slept directly on the concrete floor.'
Since that ruling, the criminal-justice system has been working on cutting jail numbers. Metropolitan Court judges have reviewed lists of inmates serving time for misdemeanors to see whether anyone's sentence deserved reconsideration. Pretrial workers were authorized to screen people who have been arrested on some misdemeanor warrants and decide whether to release them on their own recognizance or to a third party, such as a family member.
Recently, former District Court judge Rebecca Sitterly was appointed as pro tem judge to help trim the population even further.
Among other things, Sitterly was authorized to transfer some nonviolent inmates into community custody, an out-of-jail program that requires participants to wear electronic monitors, submit to drug tests and leave their homes only for work. Dantis said as of October31, 223 people were in that program, and 25 to 30 of them were referred there by Sitterly.
Peter Cubra, one of the attorneys representing the inmates in the pending 1995 lawsuit, said Tuesday the parties in the lawsuit will be meeting in the next few days.
'It's clear the government officials in recent times have taken the population cap seriously. It remains to be seen whether they will remain diligent,' he said.