Expansion nears completion at Valencia County Detention Center

LOS LUNAS — The Valencia County Detention Center has undergone an expansion that will provide more space for both male and female inmates, as well as create areas for a separate discipline unit.

The addition on the north end of the existing detention center on Courthouse Road in Los Lunas began about a year and a half ago.

The 92-bed expansion cost about $8.1 million and was paid for using American Rescue Plan Act funds received by the county.

VCDC warden Randy Gutierrez said the project was finally able to use eight of the prefabricated cells the county purchased several years ago in anticipation of the expansion. The cells are self-contained, two-bunk units that allows maintenance access through secure passages which means safer access to plumbing and other utilities to the cells, Gutierrez said.

“We won’t have to have maintenance workers going through the inmate areas, carrying tools in and out,” the warden said. “This provides more secure access.”

With inmates moved to the new section, the former men’s dorm area will be used to house inmates on medication assisted treatment for opioid addiction, and the old A unit will be used as a “proper, separated discipline unit,” Gutierrez said.

There will be three master control centers that officers can run the facility from, which provides built-in redundancy in case one of the centers fails.

The new expansion also contains two outdoor recreation spaces, which while covered, have large open windows with steel mesh grates for security that allows fresh air into the space.

“The spaces can still be used in inclement weather, so inmates can get fresh air and move around,” Gutierrez said.

One aspect of the new expansion the warden is also excited about is the 2,000 square-foot medical area, which will allow for private exam and office spaces for medical and behavioral health providers, counselors and a 14-hour pharmacy.

“We still need funding to finish that area, but the space is reserved so we don’t have to go back and add it to the building,” he said.

The additional room will also allow inmates to be classified properly, as well as bring some inmates back to Valencia County who are being housed elsewhere due to the previous lack of restrictive housing at the jail.

At a Valencia County Commission meeting in the fall of 2022, Gutierrez told commissioners the VCDC budget included about $400,000 for out-of-county housing, to pay for housing inmates elsewhere at a rate of about $200 a day, not including medical costs.

In 2021, the county was awarded capital outlay funds from the state Legislature for equipment for the detention center — $135,000 for a full-body X-ray scanner and $97,000 for an emergency generator — which will continue to be used in the expanded facility.

“This was built to the newest state standards. We should be the leader in the state,” Gutierrez said.