Crises at the Lincoln County Jail Left Without a Medical Provider with Detainees on Suicide Watch

CARRIZOZO — The Lincoln County Detention Center is operating without a health care provider while at least two inmates are on suicide watch and several others take psychiatric medication, according to a jail staff member.

The staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, also alleges that the warden overruled a medical decision this past weekend to send an inmate to the hospital.

According to the staff member, the jail’s medical provider determined over the weekend that an inmate needed hospital care. The warden said the situation was not an emergency and did not want to incur another bill, so the inmate was not taken to the hospital, the staff member said. The provider’s last day at the jail was Monday.

“I don’t think it is legal to operate without health care,” the staff member said.

Inmates on suicide watch and psychiatric holds require medication and medical monitoring, the staff member said, and corrections officers are not qualified to give medication and make assessments.

Alamogordo Town News is not identifying the inmates in order to protect their privacy.

The allegations come one week after the jail let go a nurse who had said she feared for her safety and refused to give medications without proper procedures and protections in place, according to multiple sources.

Alamogordo Town News previously reported on a recent suicide at the jail and then another recent attempt. The newspaper has filed a request under the state Inspection of Public Records Act seeking records on staffing levels and on allegations that the jail is being managed to turn a profit and is in final stages of renewal of a contract with Lincoln County. 

The detention center is a [148]-bed facility in Carrizozo operated under contract by Correctional Solutions Group LLC. 

New Mexico laws are ambiguous in requiring county jails to employ full time a medical provider. However, jails are constitutionally required to provide adequate medical care to people in their custody, and courts have found that ignoring requests for medical help or delaying emergency care can amount to deliberate indifference.

Contracting jail operations to a private company does not end the county’s responsibility. A federal court has ruled that a New Mexico county that keeps oversight of its privately run jail can still be held liable for unconstitutional practices adopted by the contractor. State law also allows a county to end its contract with a private jail operator that fails to meet the minimum standards of incarceration written into that contract.

An email has been sent to county leadership and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s office for comment. 

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