Published Oct 16, 2008
The private company interested in building a regional jail in Española is in the early stages of establishing an agreement to buy land off of Industrial Park Road from the Bartolome Sanchez Land Grant in order to complete a feasibility study on the project.
“We can pick the best site, but if the land owner is not willing to sell it’s just an exercise in futility,” Española Mayor Joseph Maestas said.
In April, the city council voted to proceed with Emerald Correctional Management to conduct a feasibility study to determine whether the region could sustain a 500-bed jail. An exclusivity agreement would bind the city to a contract with Emerald if the council decided to move forward with the jail.
Maestas said analysis regarding the demand for the project has been completed. Existing inmate levels for the areas interested in the regional jail has demonstrated that the need is there, he said.
A private company that is separate from Emerald has been conducting the study, Maestas said. The group surveyed Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara Pueblo, Rio Arriba County, Española and Pojoaque Pueblo to determine how much demand there is for a regional jail.
Informally, Emerald officials have informed Maestas that they have acquired the necessary funding for the project, which has an estimated cost of $25 million to $30 million. The project would be privately funded, he said.
However, before Emerald can present a final report on the feasibility study possible locations for the project must be secured, Maestas said. This means reaching agreements with land owners on the terms of a possible deal, he said.
The feasibility of an area depends on how far removed it is from any schools or populated parts of the city, and it has to be close to existing infrastructure and have reasonable transportation access, he said.
“It has to be in a remote location,” Maestas said.
Some of the areas that Emerald is considering include property on the Bartolome Sanchez Land Grant, city owned land where an old pumice mine was located off of 31-Mile Road and areas on the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, Maestas said. The area on the Bartolome Sanchez land grant, also off of 31-Mile Road, is Emerald’s main focus right now, Maestas said.
Chris Roybal, vice president of the Corporation of the Bartolome Sanchez Land Grant, said the Grant’s Board has met with Emerald and are in the preliminary stages of an agreement.
“We understand the need for a regional jail,” he said.
Roybal said the Land Grant is interested in working with Emerald and the city. There are two sites off of 31-Mile Road that Emerald in interested in, he said, but there is not any type of agreement or proposal.
How big of an area Emerald is looking for has yet to be determined, he said.
Roybal said he will tour the facilities of a jail Emerald manages in El Paso, Texas, to look at how the existing jail mixes in with other land uses in the area.
“If we can find a suitable location with them that everyone can agree on it will work,” he said.
Emerald is a private company based out of Louisiana that designs, builds and operates jails. It currently operates three medium security jails in Texas and two in Louisiana.
The facility would reserve beds for inmates from the surrounding law enforcement agencies, but would also ship in inmates and detainees from the federal Marshals and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department, Emerald Chief Executive Officer Clay Lee told city officials in April. Emerald officials did not return calls for comment this week.
The city is seeking a permanent solution to its ongoing jail problem. Currently, the city spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to ship most of its inmates hundreds of miles away to the McKinley County Jail in Gallup because the city lacks a jail that meets federal standards and is therefore prohibited from holding inmates for more than a day. And as of last week, the Española Jail is not holding any inmates at all because its current facility in a warehouse off of Industrial Park Road is being renovated. Renovations to the jail should be completed within the next three months, Deputy Police Chief Larry Ham said.
Accordiing to city documents, so far this fiscal year the jail has paid McKinley County $52,317 to house inmates. According to Assets Manager Trudy Gallegos the jail spends anywhere from $900 to $1,400 a month on fuel