The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico is suing a privately-run prison in Clayton for imposing cruel and unusual punishment, charging that in December, 2008, prison guards kept seven nude or semi-nude prisoners locked in a cold shower room for hours after a prison lockdown ended.

The suit, filed today in federal court, claims that prison guards at the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility teased and taunted the prisoners and a female guard videotaped the naked men. After the two-hour lockdown ended, employees told the inmates that they couldn’t find the key to the shower room door, so the inmates were given the option of crawling through a filthy cinderblock hole in the shower room wall or waiting for guards to find the key.

Several prisoners developed skin conditions after the incident and were denied treatment, the lawsuit charges.

The director of corporate relations for the GEO Group, which manages the prison, declined to comment on the lawsuit, writing in an e-mail: ”As a matter of policy, our company does not comment on litigation related matters.”

“New Mexico has one of the largest percentage of inmates housed in privately-run prison facilities in the country,” Bryan J. Davis, a cooperating attorney for the ACLU of New Mexico, said in a press release.

“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.”

 

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages against the GEO Group and several employees.