Cibola County Correctional Center
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  Location in New Mexico | |
| Location | 2000 Cibola Loop, Milan, New Mexico |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 35°10′51″N 107°54′25″W / 35.18091°N 107.90705°W |
| Security class | minimum security |
| Capacity | 1129 |
| Opened | 1993 |
| Managed by | CoreCivic |
| Warden | Betty Judd |
Cibola County Correctional Center is a privately owned minimum-security prison, located at 2000 Cibola Loop in Milan, Cibola County, New Mexico.
The facility first opened in 1993 as a county prison with capacity to house state prisoners, and was then acquired and expanded by the Corrections Corporation of America in 1998.[1] It has a capacity of 1129 inmates. Until October 2016 it housed federal minimum-security prisoners under a contract with the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons[2] and the United States Marshal Service.[3] but was soon re-opened under a new contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
This facility is unrelated to Western New Mexico Correctional Facility, also in Cibola County, operated by the New Mexico Corrections Department with an inmate capacity of 440.
Before the facility was closed in 2016, it had been a "standout example of the problems at the BOP's private prisons".[4]
Almost 700 Cibola County inmates staged a non-violent protest of prison conditions on April 23, 2001 and were tear-gassed.[5] In March 2013 about 250 inmates staged another non-violent protest, which was resolved peacefully. Prison officials declined to reveal the reason for the protest.[6] As of June 2002, 95% of prisoners held in Cibola County were undocumented Mexican nationals.[7]
From 2007-2016, 30 of the 34 citations against the facility were related to poor medical care, including the lack of an on-location doctor, failure to perform CPR, and lack of mental health evaluation for a suicidal inmate.[8]
In August 2016, Justice Department officials announced that the FBOP would be phasing out its use of contracted facilities, on the grounds that private prisons provided less safe and less effective services with no substantial cost savings. The agency expected to allow current contracts on its thirteen remaining private facilities to expire.[9] The same month CCA announced that their federal contract had not been renewed. The FBOP removed its last prisoner on October 1, and facility was slated to close with the loss of about 300 local jobs.[10]