Española Jail’s practice of shackling inmates to a bench is unconstitutional, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
“(This is) clearly a constitutional violation,” Elizabeth Alexander, director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said.
Alexander cited a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that declared it unconstitutional to shackle inmates to a “hitching post” for any length of time.
“In 2002, Hope vs. Pelzer, (the Supreme Court) ruled it violated the constitution to shackle a prisoner to what’s called a hitching post,” Alexander said. “The only difference between a hitching post and the bench you’re describing is it’s a standing position, but this is something that if it’s up to eight hours it’s clearly a constitutional violation.”
Española inmates are shackled to a small backless bench in its booking area when the jail’s only cell is overflowing, Jail Director Ted Garcia said. The cell can only hold four people of the same sex, and if more than four people are being held at one time in the cell, up to two people are detained by being shackled by one leg to the bench, Garcia said. If men and women are being held at the same time, the men are kept in the holding cell and the women are confined to the bench.
“They can be shackled the whole time they’re in here,” Garcia said.
Española Public Safety Chief Julian Gonzales oversees Garcia’s department. Gonzales refused to respond to the American Civil Liberties Union’s concerns about conditions at the jail.
“I will not answer any questions pitting me against the ACLU,” he said. “I don’t have any comment.”
The jail normally holds inmates for only four to six hours until they are transported to long-term holding facilities in Gallup, Los Alamos, Tierra Amarilla or Santa Fe. However, Española Jail admits people 24 hours a day, sometimes necessitating people to stay overnight until morning transport can be arranged.
Individuals brought in for detoxification must be held for eight hours, unless a family member can sign them out before then and take responsibility for them, Garcia said. If the eight hours lapse at night, and the person doesn’t have a relative to pick them up, he or she is held until the next morning, Garcia said.
“We don’t want to release them at night,” Garcia said. “It’s kind of a liability to have them out on the streets walking around.”
Former jail guard Orlando Romero, who worked at the facility between August 2007 and January 2008, said because there were almost always male inmates being held there, female inmates brought in were invariably detained by being shackled to the bench.
“Females that are on detox have to be shackled to it all night,” Romero said. “They’re all sleeping and you got their leg being twisted with the shackle. I thought it was kind of uncomfortable.”
Romero said with low flight-risk inmates, his own policy was to shackle their legs together but not to the bench to make them more comfortable, but other jail guards followed the normal procedure.
Alexander was concerned about the danger of detaining people in such a manner for detoxication.
“If this is alcohol detoxification it’s an extraordinarily dangerous thing to do; so in my opinion it would also violate the constitution,” Alexander said. “People on alcohol detoxification need to be carefully monitored since they are in danger of going into a coma.”
Romero said he did not see any inmates suffer from medical problems while they were being held for detox.
After the police were notified that the American Civil Liberties Union was questioning the constitutionality of the jail’s procedure, Garcia insisted Tuesday that inmates at the jail are never shackled to a bench, and claimed to have never told a reporter otherwise. Española Police Deputy Chief Larry Ham said Garcia assured him inmates are never detained in this manner.
“We don’t shackle inmates to a bench,” Ham said. “Inmates are put in full restraints if necessary, depending on the crime and circumstance.”
However, a police report about a November incident tells a different story. Inmate Fernando Espinoza took advantage of the jail’s policy of detaining people to the bench to orchestrate an escape. Detained in the holding cell with another inmate on shoplifting charges, Espinoza made a disturbance and pretended to be fighting the other man, according to the police report. After he was consequently moved to the bench, Espinoza used a handcuff key he had brought to the facility with him to remove the leg iron when guards were busy with intake and walked right out the door of the facility.
New Mexico American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Peter Simonson said whether such detention conditions could be considered unconstitutional would depend on the situation of a particular inmate.
“Certainly there are individual conditions that might affect an individual inmate that would make those kind of restraints unconstitutional,” Simonson said. “If someone has a heart attack or some sort of adverse reaction to a drug that they’re detoxing from.”
Interim Española city attorney Paula Maynes said Tuesday she was unaware of any such practice at the jail, nor with whether such a practice would violate the law regarding jail standards.
“If I confirm with (Garcia), and if I have decided something needs to be addressed, I’ll bring it up to the mayor,” she said.
Mayor Joseph Maestas said Tuesday that he wasn’t aware of any such treatment of inmates.
“It doesn’t sound humane to me, but no one’s verified to me what the factual practices have been,” Maestas said.