Curry County jail accredited

CLOVIS — The Curry County Adult Detention Center — once the site of almost routine inmate escapes — has been approved for a three-year Certificate of Accreditation by the Adult Detention Professional Standards Council of the New Mexico Association of Counties, according to a news release from the county.

The honor will be presented at the NMAC legislative conference in Santa Fe in January.

Detention Administrator Mark Gallegos said he has been working toward earning the accreditation since taking over in January 2016, even mentioning the goal to County Manager Lance Pyle during Gallegos’ job interview.

To earn the accreditation Gallegos and his staff updated policies and procedures to meet the 208 mandatory detention standards developed by the council, covering different areas such as security and mental health, Gallegos said.

The detention center passed the inspection of six auditors and will need to do so again in three years to maintain the accreditation, as well as keep reports and documents verifying the detention center is following the best practices and procedures, Gallegos said.

Gallegos said the accreditation program started in 2010 and of the 28 detention facilities in New Mexico, the Curry County Adult Detention Center is the eighth facility to earn the accreditation.

“I think that it’s a great thing for our facility, coming in and being able to take a facility and change the culture of the facility from staff all the way to the detainees,” Gallegos said.

The accreditation will result in a 2 percent decrease in detention center liability insurance for 2018, according to the press release.

The designation is significant for a detention center that has been under scrutiny for more than a decade after multiple inmates escaped its confines.

Sixteen inmates escaped the county jail between 2002 and 2013, including eight that officials described as violent who climbed through the roof on Aug. 24, 2008.

“We (have) made a lot of improvements to the detention center over the past several years,” Pyle said on Thursday. “Over the past several years the county has made improvements to the physical plant at the detention center and provided additional resources for training and services.”

The escapes and other issues at the jail resulted in repeated efforts by county officials to either build a new jail or make major renovations to the existing facility.

Voters three times — in 2010, 2012 and 2013 — rejected bond proposals related to the jail. County officials in 2014 raised gross receipts taxes without voter consent and began a $14 million construction project that includes renovations at the jail.

Jail renovation is scheduled to begin soon, expected to add 48 beds in a new housing unit of 10,800 square feet east of the existing facility, officials have said.