Op-Ed

Every Cibola County resident should be very concerned with HB-40, which is being shoved down our throats and would have huge financial repercussions for the economy and safety of our County.

This bill would shut down private prisons within the State of New Mexico and provide beds for about 46 percent of the inmates in this State. Year after year the State Legislator Angela Rubio, D-Las Cruces, brings this bill forward.

How would this bill hurt our County? It would close our Core Civic Correctional Facility, which houses ICE detainees and Cibola County Inmates. This closure would come at a loss of 250 local jobs and cost the Village of Milan about $800.000 a year in revenue and the loss of money pumped into our economy by the employees. I should mention that the Laguna Tribe contracts with the County and places inmates in this facility. This HB-40 will be almost as devastating as the Energy Transition Bill which took hundreds of high paying jobs with it’s passing, at a loss of about $13,000.000 a year to Cibola County.

Many stories have been spread about this facility over the past few years that have created a narrative and justification for closing the private prisons. Most of those stories were sensationalized and untrue. Recently, Congressman Gabe Vasquez showed up with little warning and toured the facility and asked questions of the inmates. They were surprised how clean the facility was and how open and satisfied the inmates were with the facility. No notice was given for this visit. Why are stories like this not reported?

When the Cibola County Commissioners made the decision to close down the Cibola County Detention Center six years ago, we did so because of the many lawsuits that we were having to settle. We realized that at that time that the County should not be in the detention business and we contracted with Core Civic for the care and incarceration of our inmates. Core Civic has been most professional and Cibola County has saved millions of dollars since that time. It has been a healthy partnership that keeps jobs in this area and brings Federal dollars into our area to take care ICE detainees.

You think crime is bad with the prisons we now have operating, just wait until they are closed. Please contact your State Representatives and State Senators and tell them to fight for HB-40 to be stopped in it’s tracks! We talk about crime being out of control and the answer our State Legislators give us is close the private prison industry down without any thought to how we are going to house those that easily break the law and prey on the weak!