New Mexico correctional officers see increase in inmate violence

LOS LUNAS, N.M. — New Mexico correctional officers are processing one other act of violence in opposition to one in all their very own. The division confirms an inmate on the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas attacked a guard and physician contained in the jail final week.

“We all know we’re going into work not figuring out precisely what’s going to occur,” stated J. Montano with the 3422 Correctional Officer Union.

Union management stated the dangers are solely getting larger with inmate violence.

On the facility in Los Lunas, Douglas Cornell tried to assault a physician on the best way to an appointment. New Mexico State Police confirmed he used a sharpened toothbrush. The escorting corrections officer stepped in and took the brunt of the assault. The officer was later taken to the hospital.

Cornell is serving time for kidnapping, aggravated battery and little one abuse. Now, extra expenses are on the best way.

In March, an inmate stabbed a pregnant feminine officer on the state jail in Grants.

Union management stated incidents like this have gotten extra vital due to lack of staffing.

“We’ve misplaced a unprecedented quantity of officers and there’s simply nothing being accomplished to actually compensate for what we’ve misplaced,” Montano stated.

He stated it’s a problem that’s plaguing jails and prisons statewide.

“The pay shouldn’t be the one side we have a look at, it’s the staffing, it’s the remedy of workers, it’s the decency that the division has for us, and proper now, the division shouldn’t be taking good care of us,” Montano stated. “It’s positively one in all our lowest factors of morale that we’ve ever had.”

In accordance with the union, at this level, three out of 5 individuals they discuss to are on the lookout for a brand new job – so the hope is that the division finds a solution to flip morale round quickly.

KOB 4 reached out to the state for a response on these considerations. The Division of Corrections public data officer stated they’re grateful to the correctional officer for doing what his years of expertise educated him to do in that scenario – to maintain it from escalating.