SANTA FE — The state of New Mexico spent at least $860,000 last year to settle allegations of rape and sexual abuse at its women’s prisons.
The settlements resolved legal claims filed by seven inmates — each of whom accused correctional officers of sexual misconduct, according to records reviewed by the Journal.
The lawsuits outlined a range of disturbing allegations at the prisons in Springer and Grants, ranging from rape to inappropriate sexual contact and retaliation.
In addition to the cost of the settlements, New Mexico spent about $2.5 million in recent years defending itself against the allegations, which were outlined in six lawsuits.
Corrections officials, meanwhile, say the agency is working aggressively to prevent sexual misconduct. They say they’ve made recent improvements and that some of the settled cases predate the current administration, which took office four years ago.
Still, attorneys for inmates who sued the state have described a culture in New Mexico prisons that exposed women to abuse.
Elizabeth Harrison — an attorney in Albuquerque who filed a 2021 lawsuit describing a “widespread culture of inmate abuse” at Springer — said the state Corrections Department has failed to openly address sexual abuse in its facilities.
“They have focused their efforts, including remarkably high expenditures on legal fees, on hiding such abuse from the public rather than on investigating and eradicating it,” she told the Journal.
Attorneys for the state, in turn, have...
Published on: Washington: India’s Operation Sindoor, launched following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed by Pakistan-backed terrorists,...