[Editor's Note: This is part 2 of the Commission January 7, 2025 work session, which continues the county reports from department heads.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

The next county report at the Jan. 7, 2025 Grant County Commission work session came from the Detention Center Administrator Joseph Andazola. He described his role this way: "I'm the one that administrates operations of the detention center. Operations of the detention center is a quite significant effort that takes a lot of teamwork and communications.The Grant County jail can hold up to 95 detainees. Over the last year, though, we've reported numbers up to 100 and 110 sometimes. Currently today, our population is 88. As of Dec.31 2024, the population was 90 detainees, with an average population in December of 89. I'm also in charge of 35 county employees, which consists of 22 detention officers, four corporals, four sergeants, a lieutenant of operations, a lieutenant of administration, a training sergeant, an executive assistant, and also a part-time presumptive eligibility coordinator. The coordinator determines if each inmate has current insurance or if they qualify for insurance."

"Currently, we have four officer openings with five officers in training. I'm working with HR to schedule interviews. We do have an interview scheduled for January 14. It's my job to be aware of any updates on legislation passed in the state of New Mexico, and I also participate in our detention affiliate and see any best practices or changes. With that, I update our policies and procedures and make any changes necessary. I'm a member of the board of the Professional Standards Committee of the detention affiliate. They're the ones that run the accreditation program within New Mexico. We are in the middle of that accreditation process. There are 211 standards in the accreditation process, and what those standards are to basic operations in the jail, therefore best practices. If you do those 211 best practices, your jail should have no problems, and they range anywhere from hiring to training. The standards include the detainees' files, to the medical process, to the medical treatment of detainees, to the areas where detainees are housed, how many hours out they get for recreation, meals, how many calories should be in the meals, how you store your food, the temperature of the water, the temperature of the meals, so many different things in the standards. I'm going to meet with the accreditation audit team and the legislative session here in a couple of weeks and try and do a mock audit, possibly spring or early summer, and then have our final audit, probably early fall, and hopefully we get accredited. I think our team has been really, working really hard on that."

He also works with the county manager and finance department on their budget. "We have a quite significant budget, from new equipment to new vehicles and to training personnel. We also have several contracts—food for three meals a day and for medical services."

Andazola talked about several grants. "We have the R.I.S.E. grant from the state of New Mexico, which is, reach, intervene, support, and engage. We work with the Tu Casa program, where we work with detainees within the facility, work with them while they're incarcerated, and develop a discharge plan for when they leave the facility. We also work with all levels of law enforcement from police and sheriff's department to the courts. We also send our officers to various trainings. We also work with the maintenance department to keep our equipment, including 90 cameras, functioning. The portable building has arrived and will be soon placed on its foundation for use in the RISE program."

He noted that in December the RISE program had 22 participants, with eight in the facility and 14 in the community. The Detention Center also has a special response team, which his administration created.

Andazola told the commissioners about the different trainings that he sent officers on for the special response team and basic operator school. The five-year plan he has developed will have a schedule for changing over computers, radios and security equipment.

He cited all the changes that had recently been completed, including replacement of the HVAC systems, the water heaters and the door sliders. The facility is also working on sergeant promotions. "We need thee supervisors in place as we go through the accreditation process." He talked about the upcoming legislative session, which would include meetings of the Detention Center Affiliate. He expects a big topic will be the MAT program (medically-assisted treatment), which the Grant County Detention Center already has in place.

District 1 Commissioner and Chair Chris Ponce asked if the facility was still have problems with staff turnover.

"Yes, we're working on retention," Andazola replied. "The affiliate is also working on recruitment and retention. I'm working with the county manager and HR (human resources) on hopefully getting some orientation to keep officers. We are bolstering our training. We have a lot of overtime. I know a lot of the problem is with the difficulty of the job and somewhat of the pay. We're working on changes to retirement. It's been climbing every year. If we could get it back to 20 years and 10 months, it would attract more to the career. Staying for 30 years is quite significant, especially in detention centers. The county benefits are great, but the pay is a bit low. I'm working with the manager on that."

District 3 Commissioner Nancy Stephens asked about accreditation and how often it has to be renewed.

"After we have proof of practices for one year, we can be accredited," Andazola said. "And then it would need to be renewed every three years."

He concluded by saying he looked forward to having the commissioners visit the Detention Center during their annual tour of the facility.

The next article will continue the county reports.

To read the previous article, please visit https://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/grant-county-commission-holds-first-work-session-of-2025-010725-part-1