A New Sheriff in Washington Takes on Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Readers of this blog know I have talked about Sheriff Joe Arpaio many times over the last few years. At least once every few months some one sends me an email which has been forwarded more times around this country than William Hung singing "She Bangs" on American Idol. The email is always a variation of this:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) is doing it RIGHT!! He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them. He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights. Cut off all but "G" movies. He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only let in the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.
He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them.....this is a good one......"This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."

He bought Newt Gingrich's lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place. You have to love this guy!!

More on the AZ Sheriff:
With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports:
About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts. On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks. "It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 1/2 years. "It's inhumane." Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes... so shut your damned mouths."

Now I have been called " a media hog" by some detractors especially since I did all my own Public Information Officer work for the last 6 years. I always felt it was important for me as an elected official to be available and to personally be the spokesperson for the office the voters entrusted me to hold. However, Sheriff Joe Arpaio makes me look shy with his vote getting, media attracting stunts. Most of Sheriff Arpaio's stunts were legal yet degrading stunts designed to show how tough he was on crime and taking advantage of the fact that most people had a view of jail life that included criminals watching cable t.v. and working out all day while being served 3 decent meals a day. Sheriff Arpaio seized the opportunity presented itself by that impression and set out to show that his jail, one made of tents in the Arizona desert, took away that easy life. He instituted chain gangs and professed to feed his inmates leftovers from local grocers and restaurants. What he liked to call "Green Bologna". He also went so far as to purchase old military food packs called MRE's "meal ready to eat" at very cheap prices and feed them to the inmates.

All of these stunts allowed him to portray himself as "the toughest Sheriff in America". As I said earlier these stunts were just that, publicity stunts that were legal. In the last year Sheriff Arpaio had his deputies trained under federal government program called a 287G agreement. This is up for considerable debate but the truth is immigration law is a federal civil law not a national criminal law. This means that only federal officers (ICE Officers) can arrest someone solely on the basis that they are illegally in this country. A comparison to this is the IRS, a local police officer can not arrest you for income tax crimes. Only a federal officer can.

However local agencies can enter into an agreement with immigration in which the federal government will train and deputize local deputies to enforce immigration law. In other words give local authorities the ability to arrest illegal immigrants when that is their only crime. As usual Sheriff Arpaio decided to apply his brand of law enforcement to an agreement with ICE and having his deputies deputized to enforce immigration law. Sheriff Arpaio had his deputies perform sweeps of predominately Hispanic neighborhoods. Allegedly during these sweeps innocent people were stopped questioned and arrested if they lacked proper documentation.

In his usual circus atmosphere fashion Sheriff Arpaio arrested thousands of illegal immigrants and then paraded them in shackles in front of the media. He opened up his own segregated tent city jail just for immigrants and while moving the immigrants from one tent city to the other he led them in large chain gangs in front of TV and newspaper camera's in one big Mexican parade. The only thing missing was the mariachi's. Eventually human rights and immigrant rights groups began protesting, the Governor and the Mayor of Phoenix began to join in the protests and the State cut off funding for some of Sheriff Arpaio's programs.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon wrote a letter to the Department of Justice whom had investigated Sheriff Arpaio's office at least twice before during the Bush Administration. Those inquirys remain sealed to this day prompting the Sheriff to point to them and say "see they didn't find anything!". Now there is a new Sheriff in Town. President Obama has been elected and the new U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is taking up the complaints with a new vigor. The U.S. Justice Department launched a new civil rights investigation of Sheriff Arpaio's administration. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Michigan and chairman of the House judiciary committee has also announced plans to hold congressional hearings on local immigration enforcement and call Arpaio as a witness in the coming months. Sheriff Arpaio has laid down the gauntlet saying he would not travel to Washington and testify.

You can tell the pressure is on as Sheriff Arpaio has taken to going on National Radio and News TV shows to scream foul. He claims he is unfairly being targeted as a Republican advocate for Immigration reform. The Sheriff has latched onto the immigration reform issue and placed himself squarely in the middle of the debate between those who feel we are not doing enough and those who feel we should not persecute those who come here looking for a better life. Now obviously the locals in Maricopa County are OK with Sheriff Arpaio's antics. He is re-elected time after time. During each election I think this must be his last but like many who want to see him go we are disappointed.

Would THIS make you quit smoking?

Let me start this post with my condolences for Evelyn Romero. I have met and talked to her on several occasions over the years and I understand the pain she must be going through. Losing two children and a husband since the year 2000 must be very hard. She also lost her mother in law the day after the death of her son Ronnie. I have a 23 year old son and a 16 year old daughter they along with my wife are my life. I can't imagine a day without them.

As most of you are aware Evelyn's son Ronnie died in jail on Sunday September 21, 2008. Her youngest son Robbie Romero, age 7, disappeared from the family's Bellamah Drive neighborhood in June 2000. Ronnie was always described as a "person of interest" in the disappearance in the City Police case.

Ronnie's autopsy was held on Monday September 22 and during the autopsy a balloon with suspected heroin was located in his rectum (is there a better way to describe this?). This brought about many questions as to how it gets there, why jail officials cannot stop this, along with many other questions.

The sheriff's office, the jail, the county government and others get sued by family members of both those who overdose in jail and those who die in jail in drug related deaths. The same firm (Rothstein, Donatelli, Hughes, Dahlstrom, Schoenburg & Bienvenu LLP) has had the gall to sue the county for failing to do enough to stop drugs coming into the jail and in the same breath and a different case, file a separate lawsuit for doing too much to stop drugs from coming into the jail. In the end the only one who wins in these lawsuits is the attorneys who have gotten filthy rich over these lawsuits. These attorneys file wide sweeping lawsuits suing anyone and everyone knowing that its cheaper to settle than litigate many of these cases. The earlier mentioned firm even knows full well that the Sheriff's Office is not allowed by the county to have anything to do running the jail yet they still name the Sheriff in all lawsuits having to do with the jail. Typical slash and burn tactics to ensure they can rake in as much money from as many people as possible.

These lawsuits have medical personnel, jail personnel and others scared to do anything. Inmates know that jail officials and others cannot perform any type of invasive body cavity searches so they swallow drugs in balloons in order to excrete them later or vomit the drugs back out later. They also simply insert the balloons into the rectum in order to remove them later. I am really going to gross you out now but I have seen where an inmate was suspected of bring drugs into the jail. The inmate was placed into what is called a dry cell, one without a toilet. The inmate admitted to excreting the drugs on the floor, digging them out of the excrement, and swallowing them again so they would not be found by jail personnel. Cigarettes and tobacco are brought in in the same manner.

Even when police and sheriff's get a court ordered search warrant allowing for a body cavity search, medical personnel refuse to do so stating they will not jeopardize their malpractice insurance costs by doing so. The doctors and hospitals would rather say no to a judge than face the lawsuits by the newest form of ambulance chasers. Of course jail personnel cannot do invasive searches. Hospitals have even refused to do a simple x-ray to determine if drugs were in the body. Do I seem harsh with my words? I have actually had detectives arrive at the jail to investigate a case and have private investigators and representatives of civil attorneys waiting at the front door trying to see the inmates before our investigators even begin the case.

I know there will be a lawsuit in the Romero case, I would not doubt if the above mentioned law firm did not send their business card with flowers to the funeral home. Everyone wants to blame someone when a loved one dies. When someone smuggles drugs into a jail, distributes them to inmates, and then someone dies from those drugs who is to blame? Lawsuits are usually based on proving that a person, company, or government was negligent in its duties to prevent or stop an incident. The same lawyers who sue for these cases are the same ones who tie jails hands and create ways for inmates to bring in drugs, cigarettes, and other contraband.

Which reminds me, would you quit smoking or smoke a cigarette that came from the rear end of your cell mate! I don't smoke but I think it would be enough to make me quit. I guess I have ended up using this post to rant but when I see these attorneys deposit another half a million or more taxpayer dollars in their bank account it sticks in my craw. Want an example?

In the Santa Fe Strip Search lawsuit the inmates got an average of $2,500 the attorneys, (same ones I mentioned above) got 2 million dollars. Think about that, the Firm Donatelli and Rothstien collected two million dollars for 6 months work in the Strip Search lawsuit. Even if they worked all day every day 40 hours a week this comes out to a ridicules hourly wage. I have said it before, if these attorneys at least used some of the money to help inmates receive things like drug rehabilitation or job training then I could give them some credit. Imagine what counties could do with money given to these firms or our insurance carriers which charge high premiums due to these attorneys.

We lack adequate mental health inpatient treatment facilities, inpatient drug rehabilitation facilities and even enough outpatient treatment for inmates and those who need help before they become inmates. All this money could go to these and other worthy programs. I am one who believes we need tort and other reforms which will reign in these class action and other lawsuits. How many times do citizens get a coupon worth $20 or less in these class action lawsuits while the attorneys get millions. How is this fair? Sometimes I feel like sticking my head out a window and yelling "enough is enough!"

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C.C.A. Loses federal inmates again.

Cornell Corrections runs the old Bernalillo County Detention Center in Downtown Albuquerque. It is a 900 bed facility now called the Regional Correctional Center. After the new Detention Center was built the county leased the old one to Cornell who reopened it as a private facility. The bread and butter of the deal was the fact that Cornell would lease the majority of the beds to ICE, the Federal Immigration arm of homeland security. over a third of the beds are often taken up by these federal immigration prisoners. Cornell has messed up and the Feds are pulling the prisoners out of the facility. (subscription required for link)

Cornell used to run the Santa Fe County Detention Center in the late 90's and up to around 2001. Things got so bad at the time that all Federal Prisoners were pulled from that facility as well. The Santa Fe County Detention Center was over built at the time of construction with the promise that all the extra beds would be used by the Feds who pay a premium price for housing of their prisoners. When the Santa Fe County Detention Center was full of Federal Prisoners it made profits that have never been seen again.

I was very surprised when Cornell made the deal to take over the old B.C.D.C. and made the deal to house federal prisoners there. When Cornell left Santa Fe they left us with a Federal investigation into civil rights violations and an order that barred any federal prisoners from being housed in Santa Fe. Santa Fe taxpayers are still paying the bills for their mismanagement today.

I don't know if Cornell can break the lease with the county but if they can, watch out they will be on the run, if they can not then look out, until more paying customers can be brought in they will cut staffing and medical and anything else they can because the bottom line, profits will be the only thing that matters. Profits cannot be derived from the old B.C.D.C. with only 300 prisoners.
My guess is that Cornell will be looking at Bernalillo County to save them by sending more overflow and prisoners from the new facility which is often overcrowded. It will be a deal with the devil if that happens.

More news on the dancing inmates of Cebu !

In my last Funny Friday I showed a video of The Dancing Inmates of Cebu Philippine's dancing to Michael Jacksons Thriller. Turns out the Philippine Government is now heaping praise on the jail and staff and nominating it for an award for its outstanding programs implemented by local government units. The inmates version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” dance has been viewed over 3.2 million times on Youtube as of Wednesday. The media is really running with the story, even Al Jazeera is reporting on the program.

I thought dancing to Michael Jackson to be cruel and unusual punishment. Turns out they dance to several other musical selections and they had less degrading dance numbers like this one:



I don't know its seems a little less degrading? Maybe this will start an international trend with dance offs between jails. I see the Santa Fe County Jail in the finals vs Bernalillo County Detention Center. Santa Fe bieng more liberal, the inmates would dance to Edwin Starr's "War", you know the tune:

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y'all

Bernalillo County Detention Center would probably go rap with Akon and "Locked up":

Im steady tryna find a motive,
Why do what I do?,
Freedom aint gettin no closer,
No matter how far I go,
My car is stolen, no registration,
Cops patrolin, and now they done stop me,
And I get locked up,

[Chorus]
They won't let me out, they won't let me out, (im locked up)
They won't let me out no, they wont let me out, (im locked up)
They won't let me out, they won't let me out, (im locked up)
They won't let me out no, they won't let me out

I say Santa would win, of course I'm biased. We could sell tickets and use the money raised to help pay the costs of incarceration. Video's, T-shirts and program guides would add to the revenue. The winning inmates would get a pizza party.

Ok, its one in the morning and I am really daydreaming, or awake at night dreaming. I'm not sure, can you daydream at night?

Don Diego writes new verse to Paris Hilton Parody.

Here is Paris Hilton's Booking Photo, much nicer than booking photo's you will see at Santa Fe County Jail.

Don Diego wrote a new verse to the hilarious song about Paris Hilton going to jail. Here are his first and second verses.

By Don Diego (from comments section of the Free New Mexican Website)

I hear the train a comin, it's comin round the bend - I ain't seen my eye shadow since I don't know when. I'm stuck in Century Regional just tryin to stay alive, but that limo keeps a rollin on down to Rodeo drive.

When I was just a baby, my momma told me hun - Don't go to all those parties don't you have too much fun. But I drank a few martinis and jumped into my car - Now instead of takin pictures, I'm stuck behind these bars.

Excellent work Don Diego, I see a Music Award comin, its comin round the bend.

Paris Hilton in Jail!

By Don Diego (from comments section of the Free New Mexican Website)

I hear the train a comin, it's comin round the bend - I ain't seen my eye shadow since I don't know when. I'm stuck in Century Regional just tryin to stay alive, but that limo keeps a rollin on down to Rodeo drive.

I read the above comment from Don Diego on the Free New Mexican Website. I don't know if he wrote that himself or if he got it from somewhere. If he wrote it himself he should finish the song and get it to Al Yankovic. I was ROFL, when I read it. Whether of not Paris should have gone to jail is completely up to the judge but it is interesting that I have seen battery suspects, repeat DWI offenders, burglars, and many others receive less than what her full sentence is and then get out in half the time with good time.

The Week of Misinformation

This is supposed to be Secretary's week or as it has been renamed "Administrative Professional week or day". I will always remember this week as the week of misinformation. First on Sunday Commissioner Campos writes a letter full of misinformation, see my last blog post. Next I was shocked today at just before 3pm when I received calls from members of the media asking for my response to comments made by Commissioner Harry Montoya during the public Board of County Commissioners Meeting.

Commissioner Montoya apparently received entirely erroneous information on the incident which occurred last Thursday where two 18 year old males drove on to Pojoaque High School Campus with a shotgun behind the seat of their pickup. Instead of calling to check on the information he complained about actions of the Sheriff's Office which did not happen at the meeting. The commissioners comments were described to me as a Sheriff bashing tirade by some who were present at the meeting. When I learned of the tirade I sent my Under Sheriff and Major to address the comments at the meeting which was still underway. I was due in Magistrate Court and could not head right over. The good thing is court went quick and I headed to the commission meeting.

When I arrived "as quick as I could go and not speed or run red lights" I found the Under Sheriff and Major still waiting to speak. I waited and took the podium when the time came.

Commissioner Montoya had claimed the Sheriff's Office took 45 minutes to respond. Our first Deputy arrived on scene in 45 seconds. I had deputies posted at all mid and high schools in Santa Fe County due to rumors over the anniversary of the Columbine Shootings. The Deputy who arrived in 45 seconds had driven over to the nearby mid high as he was going back and forth checking on both schools.

Commissioner Montoya claimed that we refused to take the case and refused to let Tribal Police Officers handle the case under their cross commission issued by me. The truth is I wanted to make sure that who ever handled the case had jurisdiction to do so in order to ensure that the case could be properly prosecuted. Sheriff's Detectives had contacted the District Attorneys Office who decided at the time that we could not handle the case. The deciding factor was the fact that the two 18 year old boys were Native Americans and it was believed that the incident occurred on tribal lands. The crux of the debate was whether or not the school is or is not considered on tribal land. My office and me personally contacted the U.S. Attorneys Office, the F.B.I. , B.I.A., and A.T.F. in order to determine the best agency to successfully handle the case. It was finally decided that the Sheriff's Office would handle the case and this was after agreement was reached by District Attorney Henry Valdez whom I called on his cell phone as he was out of town and the Tribal Attorney Mr. Demolla. This process took nearly an hour but the two 18 year old boys were detained the whole time and the school and public were safe. These types of tribal jurisdiction issues plague New Mexico and other states and are often debated all the way to the Supreme Court.

Commissioner Montoya claimed I had revoked the Sheriff Cross Commissions of two Tribal Officers over this incident. I don't know where this came from but it is absolutely, positively, unequivocally and without any doubt what so ever untrue. This was never discussed, threatened, or even considered for one second. Where Commissioner Montoya got this from I have no idea. As I stated earlier Pojoaque Tribal Police did request that I let them handle the case utilizing our offices cross commission. This was denied based entirely on the decision by the District Attorney's Office and not for any personal or other reason.

Commissioner Montoya really should have just called me and asked questions about this incident. He would have found out that his information was inaccurate to say the least and we could have avoided a public spectacle caused when he went on a tirade over this issue in a public meeting. I have tried to convince the Commissioners that we need to get past our differences on the jail and work together. We are all elected officials and have to work with each other for the next two to four years depending on when each of our terms end. These kind of public fights especially over untrue issues only hurts our abilities to do the public business. I believe this whole public spectacle was a result of bad feelings remaining over the jail debate. Once again I offer an olive branch to the County Commissioners and ask them to put aside our philosophical differences over the jail and have a working relationship which allows us to get things done.

I am writing this on Tuesday evening, I will add links to Wednesdays news stories in the morning to the end of this blog.

New Mexican story on the dispute

P.S. HAPPY ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS DAY TO ALL MY GREAT STAFF AND THOSE WHO SIT IN CUBICLES AND BEHIND DESKS ALL DAY DOING A GREAT JOB FOR THEIR BOSSES!

Misinformation over the Jail Continues

In the April 22, 2007 Sunday New Mexican (visible on line only on the subscription e-edition) Commissioner Paul Campos takes issue with an editorial the New Mexican published last week. I do give Commissioner Campos credit in that he has been willing to listen to my side of this debate . However, he has been given a lot of misinformation that he has either taken at face value or he refuses to see the truth. I have added Commissioner Campos letter to this blog post and after the letter I will address some points I think need to be addressed.

Leave jail to corrections professionals
By Commissioner Paul Campos

The way to make the Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facil­ity a better and safer place is to employ corrections professionals, not law-enforcement professionals. That’s what the debate with Sheriff Greg Solano is all about. What was offered on the question of whether corrections professionals or members of law enforcement should run jails? Not much.

Instead of weighing in on this impor­tant question, in its April 12 editorial, “Sheriff should be part of county jail reform,” The New Mexican instead slan­dered dedicated public servants with suggestions that “cronyism” is rampant and somehow suggest improper rela­tionships are behind the recent debate. It was argued that the sheriff should continue to have input on jail opera­tions, despite the fact that state law clearly places responsibility to operate the jail on the jail administrator, not the sheriff.

It was suggested that Santa Fe County should accept every seriously intoxi­cated person brought to the jail by law enforcement, regardless of whether the county’s medical professionals think that they can be managed medically.It was suggested to the public that prisoners are now being released willy­nilly into the community by mistake and ignored the fact that the reason we now know about a very small number of improper releases is because the new administration of corrections profes­sionals cared enough to find out and conducted an audit.

It was suggested that the facility is “crime-ridden,” based only on a dispute between county administration and the sheriff over which incidents should be reported and when.
How do the two incidents com­plained of by the sheriff justify a con­clusion that “crime” is “rampant?” And how can it be concluded that “crimes” had taken place when the county’s professional investigators at the jail couldn’t even determine whether any­thing had happened? Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Is that what’s being advocated?

Has The New Mexican forgotten the strip-searches that cost the county, the former operator and their insurers $8.5 million? Has The New Mexican forgotten the suicides? The deaths? And the untold amounts of public money that will be spent because the prior operator and the previous jail admin­­istration couldn’t get a handle on these things? Since the new management team has taken over, these types of incidents have thankfully become a thing of the past. We feel that opinions laced with insinuation and presenting only one side of an argument should be beneath a newspaper that is concerned with the important details that construct the whole picture and accurately depict the full story.

Sure, there are substantial differences with Sheriff Solano about the opera­tion of the jail, and the friction that was observed this week may continue. We are certain that the sheriff’s sense of duty will compel him to tell us, and the community, in the clearest possible way, if he believes anything is wrong. We are confident that the facility will be better because the Board of County Commissioners has made a public commitment to make it better. The jail will be a better place because the county administration has secured the assistance of corrections experts. The jail will be a better place because the Board of County Commissioners and the county manager have decided to address the pay issue, recruit and retain experienced corrections professionals, once and for all. It is our hope that in this important discussion, the public will not be deprived of a critical miss­ing partner — this newspaper and the public they aim to inform.

Paul Campos is a Santa Fe County Commissioner who represents District 4.

Commissioner Campos states that "state law clearly places responsibility to operate the jail on the jail administrator, not the sheriff."

The State Statutes clearly allows for either the Sheriff or a Jail Administrator. For Commissioner Campos to misstate that fact he is either misinformed by County Legal or skewing the facts for his letter.

Commissioner Campos asserts the jail is not currently Crime Ridden and states "And how can it be concluded that “crimes” had taken place when the county’s professional investigators at the jail couldn't even determine whether any­thing had happened?" At the crux of this is two rape cases. Rape Cases are often one persons word against another and failure by jail officials to report the crimes for up to two weeks only made a hard investigation worse. There is however documented cases where there is no doubt what so ever that over $30,000 in cash and jewelry has been stolen from those arrested and taken to jail in just the last 5-6 months. The thefts continue even as recent as days ago. How many thefts of cash go unreported every day by immigrants or others who "don't want to make waves"?

A $4,000 ring was reported on 4-20-07, $500 in cash stolen in the last week, clothing watch and ring valued at $20,000 on 4-6-07. In many of these cases and others there is verification by others that the items existed when the victims were taken to jail. In one case a few months ago a city police officer verified $5,000 in cash that an inmate had when booked into jail. When he was released he had no cash at all. Simple steps could be taken to alleviate this problem but instead jail officials and county commissioners just keep saying crime is not happening at the jail.

Commissioner Campos tries to make a case that jail officials discovered that "we now know about a very small number of improper releases is because the new administration of corrections profes­sionals cared enough to find out and conducted an audit." The audit began and was completed about one month after employees of the State Probation and Parole and myself complained about such releases which were not even being reported to the Sheriff's Office and were being kept quiet. On this I know Commissioner Campos is not misinformed because I have made this very clear to all the commissioners.

Commissioner Campos talks about having corrections professionals run the jail and I agree we need to hire the best people for the jobs. I don't agree that has always been the case. One of the problems that the private companies had when they ran our jail was they kept bringing in prison people to run a jail. It was identified as one of the biggest problems that caused issues such as the illegal strip searches. In prison inmates can be strip searched at any time, in jails there is strict rules as to who can me strip searched and who cannot. That is not to say that prison employees can not adjust to running jails only that intense training and education is required to learn the differences. That type of education unfortunately is currently being conducted through trial and error resulting in many problems.

Commissioner Campos states the commission has made a commitment to make the jail better. I hope it happens, I want to be proven wrong and for a year from now for someone to say "see how well the jail is going now". I never wanted to run day to day operations and I never have done so. I just always believed that I could be a part of the solution.

Answers to a readers questions.

In the last post a reader posed some excellent questions. Here is the post and then I will answer the questions.

Anonymous said...

The view is now that the jails are money maker's there was a grab to take control...all the warning signs were there and fielded. The set-up was unavoidable.

We'd like to know who hired the standing facility director, who has so much support, and who is this person? We realize that you wish to continue to work with the facilities, so we're acknowledging this is a reach for a disclosure.

It's also not clear where the main issues lay, at both jails? Is the Administrator in charge of both jails? Do the employees have all the necessary tools to prepare the proper papers required when doing intakes or releases? Isn't there a computer program required and do both jails have that program and are the employees trained on how to use it?

One or two final questions, are there only certain designated persons who report to you when there may be a problem at the jails and why is that? Why can't anyone report who may be involved in an incident or do they? That's not clear because of claims that you received reports too late to investigate and it boils down to a he said, he said.

Someone put it best, 'by standing back and watching you may be able to assess the situation much clearer as to remainders and details.'

Wonder who the new Sheriff will be in three years, that won't want the responsibility of handling the jails?

Saturday, April 14, 2007 9:26:00 AM

There are some very good questions in this comment, looks like you spent some time thinking about this. The Corrections Director, was hired by the County Manager at the direction of at least some of the Commissioners.There was no national or local search and no one knows who else or even if anyone else was considered. Doubts exist that any background check or references were checked.Rumors persist the choice was a political one. As to jails being money maker's, in many places they are. Santa Fe's high cost of living, and the lack of people to work at the jail causing high wages to be paid to obtain workers makes our jail non-profitable for private companies and government run facilities in Santa Fe. Not to mention that the County is so far behind on even billing other government entities that we could never make a profit the way it is run now. Santa Fe County has not billed the city of Espanola for their inmates housed in our jail since October of last year. Espanola is concerned because it hurts their ability to plan and budget when Santa Fe County does this.


The Corrections Director oversees the Administrators of both the Juvenile and the Adult Facilities. Those Administrators oversee the bulk of almost 500 employee positions.

Any employee should be able to call the Sheriff's office to report a crime. Currently the Corrections Director put in place a policy that all alleged crimes are to be investigated by her staff and a report made to her, she will then decide if and when to call law enforcement. In the meantime valuable evidence, suspects and witnesses could be lost. I have issued a written order that this cease immediately however I have little faith at this time that the order will be carried out. The Resolution passed by the county allows for the practice of waiting to call law enforcement to continue.

A system to stop or at least greatly reduce bad releases was put in place by the former Corrections Director and myself which included the courts, probation and parole, jail officials and law enforcement. The new Corrections Director cut ties with those partners and has allowed employees to not follow procedures previously put into place. This has allowed inmates who should be in jail to be accidentally let free. Law enforcement is not being notified when these inmates are set free which would allow us to find them and return them to jail.

Finally the voters decide who the next Sheriff will be, New Mexico is one of only a handful of states which limit Sheriff's to two terms. I will go on to other things. It is my hope and in all likelihood the current Under-Sheriff Robert Garcia will run for Sheriff. He would be an excellent choice but it is early and he needs to make that announcement, He is as committed as I am to having safe well run correctional facilities.

Thanks to supporters on Jail Issues.

I want to thank all those who have called, emailed, written letters, and editorials of support for my stance on the jail issues. It really makes a difference in my family's life and in my life and spirit to get these words of encouragement. Almost a hundred different people have let me know that they support me and thanked me for my efforts. To top all that off was the editorial in todays New Mexican which was the icing on the cake for me, Thank you New Mexican. Sometimes you wonder if charging the windmill is worth it but this time I have no doubt. It was for a good cause and it was worth it. On the other hand I have begun to reach out to the Commissioners and the County Manager and will continue to do so as far as getting the rest of the county business done. We still have to work together for 2-4 years depending on when each of our terms of office end.

By the way, had to look up the word putsch that was used in the New Mexican Editorial if any of you need it here is the definition:

putsch \PUCH ('u' as in 'push')\, noun:
(Sometimes capitalized) A secretly planned and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government.

Resolution to remove sheriff from jail chain of command passes

It was a done deal days ago and today the Santa Fe County Commissioners only had to give some semblance of listening to the public before taking a vote to remove the Sheriff from jail operations. The 5 page resolution filled with legalize will take a team of attorneys to go through and understand but it is summed up at the end with a few basic sentences that say the Sheriff will not do anything at the jail but investigate crimes and even then the document says the jail will decide whats a crime and what is not and then make the decision on whether to call the Sheriff's Office.

I will probably have an attorney review this and then decide where to go from there. I have received many calls of support and several jail employees have called thanking me for trying to fight for them. One lady was near tears as she said she was afraid to speak out about how bad things are for fear of losing her job. She vowed that once she found a new job she would speak out. I felt for her but the truth is the county is not at a place right now where they would listen.

I will continue to try and advocate for a safe and well run jail and hope that I can make a difference from the outside. The resolution passed today is so far reaching and encompassing that the county commissioners may have overstepped their bounds. Some say I should just stand aside and let the house of cards fall, that is an option. The truth is I do care and don't want to see failure even if the County Commission has absolved me from blame should failure occur.

In recent weeks one thing I wanted was to stop all the back door shenanigans and just get this out in the public. At least now everything is out, I have had my say and reported the problems I was seeing at the jail. The County Manager and Commission were still in denial today and maybe they will always see things differently than I do. I do want to thank Commissioner Mike Anaya for his courageous support. Being the lone voice against your peers can be difficult and it took a lot of guts. Chief Eric Johnson and Deputy Chief Benjie Montano both showed up to voice support and without my calling them or asking. I really appreciate their taking the initiative and the time. I am reading this blog post and it kind seems like I have given up, I have not and hopefully that is not the impression you get when you read it.


This quote has hung in my office for about three years now, it is one of my favorite quotes.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Why I have been preoccupied-Or the Jail, the Commission and the Sheriff

As you read tomorrows newspapers you will see why I have been so preoccupied that I have blogged very little in the last two weeks. The County Manager, the County Commission and myself have been in a battle behind closed doors the last few weeks. Tomorrow that battle becomes a public spectacle. I may be just as much to blame that things got to this point. On the other hand I tried, tried and tried again to deal with these issues in a sane and rational manner. Each time I tried I only found myself facing a brick wall. Most of the time I found my back against that wall.

In the papers and on T.V. you will find all the rhetoric and allegations so I wont go much into them here. Here I will talk about the not so sensational things that got us into this mess. Years ago after dealing with private corporations running the jail and not doing a great job I pushed for the county to take over the jail. The time was right, private companies losing so much money in Santa Fe that companies either did not want to come here any longer or they wanted to charge so much money that the county finally had not only the fact that taking over was the right thing to do but they now had a financial reason. It was no longer cheaper to have a private company run the jail. I knew all along we needed to take over because the out of state prison companies could not run a local jail. They just did not care. So I pushed for the county to take over, the first six months showed remarkable improvements at the jail. Only medical was a constant problem. We were unable to hire and keep medical staff which stymied growth and meaningful change.

Then I first got an inkling things were going awry when around March of 2006 the County Attorney and then County Manager Gerald Gonzales asked for a meeting. They said the County wanted the Sheriff out of the chain of command in the Jail. When the county agreed to take over the jail the Corrections Director was placed under the Sheriff and the County Manager. This allowed the Sheriff to have the ability to have some input in issues at the jail. I did not agree to change this and I did not hear much else about this for a while.

In about May Annabelle Romero was brought in as a highly paid consultant to the jail. She was later moved up to Corrections Director. All without my input, prior to this I took part in hiring decisions on high level positions in corrections. When she was hired as a consultant a committee to review the applicants (at that time it was to be a contracted position and not a hired employee) which included the Under Sheriff, placed Annabelle Romero last of those interviewed as possible consultants. None the less she was hired as a full time highly paid employee. Once she was moved up to corrections director all cooperation and communication with the Sheriff's office ended. When I got calls from people with concerns or complaints about the jail I used to call then Corrections Director Greg Parish relay those concerns and they were always handled.

Now with Annabelle Romero as Corrections Director my phone calls were not returned, issues were not handled and it was not just me. Many of the calls I got were from community members, government entities and non-profits asking for help in getting calls returned and issues handled at the jail. Their calls were not getting returned either. I later learned that thousands of dollars were being stolen from inmates at the jail. Simple procedures devised by former Corrections Director Greg Parish and myself were no longer being followed. Crimes were going unreported at the jail for weeks. By the time my investigators were called the victims, witnesses and suspects were long gone from jail. Inmates were being releases that were not due to get out of jail yet.

I had meetings with the Corrections Director, the County Manager and County Attorney over these months that did no good. When prisoners were being released by mistake, and crimes went unreported I had to take more serious action. I began putting things in writing, recording conversations for evidence and pushing for the county to take action. The County Manager told me that Commissioners wanted me out of the loop at the jail. In a public vote at the time the county took over the jail the Corrections Director was put under myself and the County Manager. I told the County Manager that I felt that was still in effect. It was then that the County Commission decided to have a new vote which takes place tomorrow, to remove me from the chain of command at corrections. In other words kill the messenger.

Rather than deal with the problems at the jail they choose to deny the problems and get rid of the one who says there are problems. Some have told me I am better off and I should just let them remove me from oversight of the jail and then it will all be their headache. My thing is I pushed to have the county take over the jail and now I should just walk away and leave the taxpayers with this mess? Things were getting better before politics got involved and now the jail has never been this bad. If I am to be pushed out of Santa Fe County Corrections I need to go with a clear conscious. If I go quietly into the night I have no doubt nothing will change. The current Corrections Director is making very bad decisions and continuing the same types of public service that resulted in the loss of her law license years ago. Tomorrow is just day one in what I am sure will be a long few weeks if not months. One quote sticks in my mind.

‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’

I have decided, I will not be that man....

Kudo's to KOB TV

I want to give Kudos's to KOB TV for this story on it not being illegal to video tape someone in a bathroom. The reporter made an excellent point when he pointed out that while the New Mexico Legislature has passed laws on things like the State Bolo Tie and official State Cook Book, they have yet to take care of unsuspecting females who are video taped with out their knowledge in public bathrooms. This really should be a law that should fly through committees and be passed by both the House and the Senate with record speed. The stunt of putting a fake camera in the restroom was a great attention grabber and the legislature should take immediate action.

Usually the media reports things that have happened rather then taking part in making things happen. This was a great case where they did both.

On another note the New Mexican, The Journal, and KOB TV reported on The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office new Computer Forensics Unit. I am especially proud of this achievement as it was years in the making and puts the Sheriff's Office in the forefront of New Technology and puts in place the ability to gather and preserve digital evidence.

on a final note I am very upset with This bill moving through the legislature.
The House voted Wednesday to allow counties to raise taxes aimed at jail funding. That measure now heads to the Senate. This is in response to counties who are going broke housing state prisoners in an unfunded mandate. Rather than just pay their bill to the counties for housing these state prisoners, legislators are trying to have individual counties raise taxes locally and then use the money to pay for the bills we are incurring on state inmates. This forces local County Commissioners to face local constituents with a tax increase and then somehow explain to them that we are raising taxes on them to pay a bill the state refuses to pay. What is wrong with this picture? Come on legislators just agree to pay the bills for state prisoners. One of the problems is there is no definition of just who is a state prisoner, that is also contained in a bill the legislators can and should pass. Counties are literally going broke paying jail bills and a huge majority of these prisoners either are state prisoners or should be state prisoners.

State District judges, State Prosecutors and defense attorney's try to keep prisoners who are sentenced to prison out of the prison system by having prisoners sentenced to say five years in prison but deferring all but 364 days. What this does is burden the county jails with hard core prisoners who belong in prison and whose bill should be paid by the state but because of the deferred sentence they end up with the bill for their incarceration being paid by the County. These are prisoners charged with State Criminal Statutes, convicted of crimes in a State Court and sentenced to State Penitentiary's, Their incarceration costs should be paid by the State.

Anyway its Friday and I have talked enough. Have a good weekend.

End Homelessness, Private Prisons and Jails

Yesterday I was up and out of the house really early to attend Mayor David Coss's Blue Ribbon Panel tasked with coming up with a plan to end homelessness in five years. It is an ambitious goal. I give a lot of credit to Mayor Coss for beginning this process. I was asked by Mayor Coss to sit on the panel and I was happy to do so. I am not a morning person so I am glad the next meeting is not at 7:30 am like the first one was. The first meeting was introductions and preliminary discussions while the next meeting will begin breaking the group up into committees. The Santa Fe New Mexican's Henry Lopez was up early to cover the meeting. The one thing I have always admired about Mayor Coss both when he was a Councilor and as Mayor was his ability to think "bigger picture" and not just take on the easy political issues. These types of initiatives take courage to even begin and most politicians will not take them on for fear of the high chance of failure to do more than make short term gains both politically and realistically. This group seems highly motivated and knowledgeable so I see good things coming out of these meetings.

The New Mexican's Steve Terrell did a piece on private prisons and this subject always interests me. It was a standard piece which contained the usual quotes from the firm Rothstien and Donatelli. All reporters run to them for their negative quotes whenever doing a prison or jail story. The firm has made millions off the backs of governments and taxpayers while purporting to be advocates for prisoners. I have said it before and I will say it again when this firm puts even 10% of the millions they make into any inmate programs whether it be vocational training, living skills or substance abuse programs I will have a little more respect for them.




















Donatelli mentioned that Santa Fe County was struggling to run its jail after years of it being run by private entities. One of the reasons the County, (any County for that matter) has to struggle is that resources and money that could go towards operations and programs go to insurance and legal costs to fend off those who make a living taking advantage of taxpayers and getting the easy money to be made in the lawsuits against jails. The Firm Donatelli and Rothstien collected two million dollars for 6 months work in the Strip Search lawsuit. Even if they worked all day every day 40 hours a week this comes out to a ridicules hourly wage.

District judges and defense attorneys try to keep prisoners who are sentenced to prison out of the prison system by having prisoners sentenced to say five years in prison but deferring all but 364 days. What this does is burden the county jails with hard core prisoners who belong in prison and whose bill should be paid by the state but because of the deferred sentence they end up with the bill for their incarceration being paid by the County. Private jails and prisons have not been good for New Mexico and that is one of the few areas where Donatelli and Rothstien and I agree. Privatization does make more sense for prisons than jails and I have yet to see a jail in New Mexico where it has worked out. On the other hand the State of New Mexico sets up jails for failure. State inmates are forced to be housed in county run jails with counties forced to foot the bill.

It also means that a jail which is not equipped or able to afford programs to reintegrate felons into society is saddled with long term housing of felons. Exactly the type of housing a prison is designed for. The legislature refuses to address these problems because it would mean increasing State Corrections costs considerably. As more and more jails bankrupt county budgets you are going to see increased pressure on legislatures from the local governments to do something about this. Remember all politics is local and legislators have to run in their local districts and more and more roads, libraries and other local services are suffering because of jail costs.

Ok, this is one of my longer blog posts and I tend to go off on tangents where jails are concerned. It is an issue which both intrigues me and incenses me. We have a lot of dedicated people in Santa Fe County who really care about the jail and having a well run jail that has meaningful programs. We just struggle because of costs and burdens saddled on local governments by law firms who take advantage and the state government.

.....One final note, I do have some really good friends who are attorneys so on thier behalf I offer this disclaimer.

*** Nothing in this blog is meant to label all attorneys and any remarks which resemble attorneys living or deceased is purely coincidental, accidental or on purpose depending on which portion of this disclaimer stands up in court.

Children Are Our Future?

Today I had lunch with volunteers and residents at the Santa Fe Youth Development Center (previously known as the youth detention center). Federal Judge Martha Vasquez joined me in honoring the volunteers who teach students, Music, Art, Native American Rituals, Religion, Culinary Arts, and Academics. It was a moving experience.

The program started with Aztec Dancers who danced and prayed. First just the Indian dancers danced then about 9 brave residents and one of the volunteers joined them. As I watched the teens dance they really got into it and had big smiles on their faces. Dressed in their sweat pants and green t-shirts, when I first arrived it was easy to distinguish them as residents. However, dancing with big smiles on their faces they looked just like any other kid, actually they looked a lot like my kids. I have a 13 year old daughter and a 20 year old son.

These were all long term detainees, most were Federal Indian Nation prisoners. In order to be placed in this program one must have been convicted of a serious felony. Dancing, smiling and enjoying the beautiful day outside these kids looked just like kids should look. Happy and enjoying life. All this was happening in the back recreation yard of the Youth Development Program. As I watched them my eyes caught the fence surrounding the property. It is tall and topped with razor wire. Just outside the fence you can see a normal playground belonging to a nearby daycare. What a difference from the harsh playground in the fence to the colorful inviting playground outside.

Inside the building we were served a meal as good as I have had in some of Santa Fe's finest restaurants. All of it was cooked by residents enrolled in the culinary arts program. Many of the volunteers were honored by the kids with moving speeches, prayers, and awards. This entire program once run by a private company is now run by Santa Fe County. It is really a shining star and a great example of government doing things right.

I know one day some of these kids will serve us a meal in their own restaurant. One day we will enjoy a sold out concert played by one of these kids. One day we will attend a gallery opening with the works of one of these children. The sad truth is one day I will also see one of these kids at the adult jail. Maybe one day I will be able to say this will not be the case, at least that is why all these great volunteers do what they do.