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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 10, 2010

CONTACT: Micah McCoy, (505) 266-5915 Ext. 1003 or mmccoy@aclu-nm.org

LAS CRUCES, NM – The ACLU of New Mexico (ACLU-NM) and Disability Rights New Mexico (DRNM) settled their lawsuit against the Doña Ana County Detention Center (DACDC), securing essential mental health services for detainees. The settlement marks the end of a lawsuit brought as a class action by detainees who alleged that DACDC failed to provide adequate treatment for inmates with mental health disabilities. Under the terms of the settlement, DACDC will improve its intake screening process and provision of treatment, and it will modify segregation cell use as well as seclusion and restraint procedures to comply with constitutional standards and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“We are very pleased that Doña Ana County has agreed to take these important steps towards providing detainees with adequate mental health care,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “These reforms will go a long way towards ensuring that detainees with mental disabilities are diagnosed and given proper care. We expect these changes to make the Doña Ana County Detention Center a safer and healthier facility.”

The settlement agreement mandates that DACDC implement standard screening procedures in its intake process in order to identify at the outset which detainees require treatment for mental disabilities. This will ensure that detainees receive immediate attention and avoid a deterioration of their condition that could put themselves, security staff and other detainees at risk. The agreement also requires that detainees with significant mental health disabilities be housed in a specialized mental health unit within the detention center and that they be supervised by corrections officers who have undergone special training regarding mental health issues.

A key achievement of the settlement was an assurance that placement in isolation cells — used inappropriately throughout the nation when dealing with detainees or inmates with mental disabilities — will not be used for detainees with mental disabilities unless all other less restrictive options have been exhausted. In addition, when physical restraint becomes necessary, corrections officers will only hold detainees until a trained medical professional is able to diagnose and administer treatment.

“Disability Rights New Mexico has been responding to concerns about inadequate mental health care in DACDC since 2004,” said Nancy Koenigsberg, DRNM Legal Director.  “DACDC is now required to maintain an adequate level of mental health services staffing.  It also has a continuum of care of mental health services in the facility, as well as provisions for transferring detainees to acute care out of the facility when clinically indicated.  These are very important services for detainees with mental disabilities. We also hope this may help with recidivism.”

A neutral expert in prison mental health care will be agreed upon by both parties and contracted to monitor and evaluate DACDC progress in the implementation of these reforms over the next two years. DRNM will oversee the monitoring process.

ACLU-NM Staff Attorney Brendan Egan, Disability Rights New Mexico Attorneys Nancy Koenigsberg and Tim Gardner, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and ACLU-NM Cooperating Attorneys George Bach, Peter Cubra and Michael Lilley represented the plaintiffs in this case.

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Related Documents:

Bravo Settlement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Wednesday, June 17, 2009

CONTACT: Brendan Egan, Staff Attorney, ACLU-NM
(505) 243-0046

Albuquerque—The ACLU of New Mexico sued the Geo Group corporation and several employees of New Mexico’s newest private prison today, alleging violations of seven inmates’ right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The lawsuit stems from a December 10, 2008 incident in which all seven inmates were locked in a cold shower room with little or no clothing for five hours. When the inmates were showering, the prison had gone on “lock-down” because of a disturbance in another area of the prison. Some of the seven inmates were almost to their cells when they were forced back in the shower room.

While locked in the shower, prison personnel teased and taunted the inmates for the five hours. One female prison guard also videotaped them, laughing and dancing at the inmates, all of whom were male. Tear gas used to control the disturbance elsewhere in the prison drifted into the shower room. One of the inmates who suffered from asthma requested to be let out of the shower room to get his inhaler because of the gas, but his request was ignored by guards.

Claiming they couldn’t find the keys, after five hours the guards forced the inmates to crawl out of the shower through a filthy, cinderblock-size hole in the shower wall.

Several of the inmates developed skin conditions because of the incident, which went untreated for weeks by the prison.

“New Mexico has one of the largest percentage of inmates housed in privately-run prison facilities in the country,” said Bryan J. Davis, a Cooperating Attorney for the ACLU of New Mexico. “These prisons go up, the employees don’t receive adequate training, and the inmates suffer the consequences. It’s irresponsible on the part of the private prison companies and the State that contracts with them.”

Filed in federal court, the lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages against the private prison company and its employees. The case was brought by Bryan J. Davis of Davis & Gilchrist, P.C., an ACLU-NM Cooperating Attorney; George Bach and Brendan Egan, ACLU-NM Staff Attorneys; and Phil Davis, ACLU-NM Co-Legal Director.

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The mission of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is to maintain and advance the cause of civil liberties within the state of New Mexico, with particular emphasis on the freedom of religion, speech, press, association, and assemblage, and the right to vote, due process of law and equal protection of law, and to take any legitimate action in the furtherance and defense of such purposes. These objectives shall be sought wholly without political partisanship.

Statement of Peter Simonson, ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, March 13, 2009
CONTACT: Whitney Potter (505) 507-9898 or wpotter@aclu-nm.org

SANTA FE—Today, legislation replacing the death penalty with life in prison without parole (HB 285) sponsored by Democrat Gail Chasey, of Bernalillo County, passed the New Mexico Legislature. The bill cleared its final hurdle in the State Senate today by a vote of 24 to 18. The House voted 40 to 28 in favor of HB 285 on February 11, 2009. The bill now goes to the Governor’s desk for his consideration.

Statement:

The ACLU of New Mexico praises lawmakers today for voting to end capital punishment in the state of New Mexico. We hope it will generate momentum in the campaign to end capital punishment nationwide.

The death penalty is the ultimate denial of civil liberties. In the past 35 years, 130 inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row. State officials and opinion leaders have acknowledged what advocates have said for years: the death penalty is a public policy disaster that is expensive, discriminatory, cruel and immoral.

We acknowledge the tireless work of death penalty opponents, including the remarkable leadership of the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty, and ACLU members from across New Mexico who lobbied their legislators in support of abolition.

If signed by Governor Bill Richardson, New Mexico will become the 15th state with no death penalty. The ACLU strongly urges the Governor to sign this historic piece of legislation.

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The mission of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is to maintain and advance the cause of civil liberties within the state of New Mexico, with particular emphasis on the freedom of religion, speech, press, association, and assemblage, and the right to vote, due process of law and equal protection of law, and to take any legitimate action in the furtherance and defense of such purposes. These objectives shall be sought wholly without political partisanship.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2007

CONTACTS: Whitney Potter, ACLU of New Mexico (505) 266 5915 ext. 1003, Cell (505) 507 9898 or Nancy Koenigsberg, P&A (505) 256-3100

LAS CRUCES, NM—Civil rights groups sued the Dona Ana County Detention Center today for failure to provide adequate mental health services to inmates in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and constitutional prohibitions on “cruel and unusual punishment.”  The class action suit charges county officials with “deliberate indifference to [inmates’] serious mental health needs,” including failure to provide adequate mental health screening, monitoring, and care.  On behalf of plaintiffs, Protection and Advocacy System, Inc. (P&A), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, and private attorneys Michael Lilley of Las Cruces and Peter Cubra and Lisa Schatz-Vance of Albuquerque seek an effective program for mental health screening and treatment for all detainees and policy changes prohibiting the unnecessary incarceration of people with mental illness.

“Local officials have chosen to arrest and incarcerate people with serious mental disabilities instead of providing them with the treatment they require,” said P&A Executive Director, Jim Jackson.  “After incarcerating them, the county does not provide them with needed treatment at the jail, either.  We gave County officials multiple chances to fix the situation and they ignored our efforts.  We felt litigation was our only recourse.”

In December, 2006, a jail conditions expert, hired by P&A, inspected the jail and sent a memo to detention center Director Chris Barela recommending improvements in the jail’s program for mental health screening.  When their letter went ignored, P&A sent a second letter in June, 2007 requesting that specific problems regarding inadequate mental health care be corrected.  The letter followed an attempted suicide by a person held in the jail who is a named plaintiff in the civil rights suit.  In May and September 2007 P&A visited with jail officials and reiterated their concerns.

None of these contacts prompted significant improvements in mental health programming.

ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson said, “By ignoring inmates’ mental health problems, the county has created a lose-lose situation.  The inmates suffer.  The jail suffers, because it faces possible suicides and violence within the facility.  And ultimately the citizens of Doña Ana county lose, because eventually some of these inmates will return to society in worse mental states than when they entered the jail.  It’s high time the situation was resolved for all concerned.”

The lawsuit was filed in state court.  In addition to policy changes, it seeks punitive and compensatory damages.

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Related Documents:

Dona Ana County Complaint

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