As the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) struggles with less than 70% staffing, Bernalillo County commissioners this month accepted $3 million in grant funding to help the jail hire nearly two dozen corrections officers.
Commissioners accepted the grant from the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration during their Sept. 10 meeting. The funding can be used for recruiting and paying the salaries and benefits of corrections officers, but not for retention or recruitment bonuses.
“MDC faces the same hiring challenges as most correctional facilities across the country,” said MDC spokesperson Candace Hopkins. “It takes a special kind of person to become a corrections officer, and not every applicant is a good fit for a career in corrections.”
Of the 411 budgeted corrections officer positions the jail has, only 262 are filled; 51 cadets are in the academy. Based on that, there are 98 vacant positions, meaning the MDC is “approximately 64% staffed for corrections officers,” according to Hopkins.
Hopkins said the funding would be used to fill positions that were temporarily frozen. The jail froze the positions and used the funding to cover overtime pay. She said 80 positions need funding.
Joseph Trujeque, vice president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 18 for New Mexico and Colorado — a labor union that represents the officers — said the council is hopeful the funding will help the jail’s staffing rates.
“Corrections across the country is suffering right now. It seems like it’s just hard to get people to work in corrections, period,” Trujeque said. “We’re losing them just as fast as we get them. It’s an uphill battle…any measure that can help, obviously, we are in favor of.”
MDC has hired 168 cadets since the beginning of the year and is taking applications for the academies in October and November. Hopkins said the jail receives around 120 applications for each academy and it had a hiring event in May that resulted in 12 leads for the June academy.
Hopkins said MDC is working to improve officer retention by working to reduce mandatory overtime and creating more on-the-job training for new officers and mentorship programs.