The privately run Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia is the worst in the nation in terms of sexual victimization rates for 2007, according to a recently released Justice Department report.

The full report, prepared as required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, put the Estancia prison at the top of the list with a reporting rate of 13.4 percent, more than four times the national average of 3.2 percent.

According to the Justice Department, interviews were conducted in 282 local jails between April and December of 2007 with a sample of 40,419 inmates.

The Torrance County lockup is run by Corrections Corporation of America, which said in a statement to the Mountain View Telegraph that it was reviewing the report:

". . . in the spirit for which it was intended — as one of a number of tools for correctional systems to utilize in the ongoing effort nationwide to reduce occurrence of sexual victimization in correctional facilities. We feel it is important to note specifically that the report clearly states that use of information for ranking or comparison purposes is not possible by the BJS’ own acknowledgements due to the sampling error."

However, the author of the report told the Telegraph that even accounting for sampling error, "Torrance County is still the highest."

Principal report author Allen J. Beck also told the Telegraph:

 "If you limit (consideration) to the most serious stuff ,then Torrance County still comes out the highest. If you eliminate the willing activity between inmates and staff, Torrance County still comes out the highest. So whatever measure you’re looking at, it’s clear that Torrance County stands out."

In a press release, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics confirms this, and also mentions the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention center in Albuquerque as having one of the highest rates of sexual victimization. The release says:

The Torrance County Detention Facility (New Mexico) recorded the highest overall rate of sexual victimization (13.4 percent). When sexual victimization excluded allegations of touching only, the Torrance County Detention Facility remained the highest with 8.9 percent, followed by the Brevard County Detention Center in Florida (7.8 percent), the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center in New Mexico (6.7 percent), and the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail (5.8 percent).

Officials would not offer specifics to a Mountain View Telegraph reporter inquiring about an inmate-on-inmate altercation that occurred May 12 at the Estancia prison, which sent two prisoners to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

On Nov. 11, 2000, the Estancia prison erupted in a riot in which 32 inmates attacked officers, injuring eight.

 

Originally designed as a 286-bed facility, the Torrance County prison was expanded in 1997 to hold 910 beds, and has an average daily population of 834 inmates, according to the the New Mexico Corrections Department.

The lockup houses prisoners from the state, the U.S. Marshals Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Torrance County. The town of Estancia has a population of about 1,825 within the town limits.