The Torrance County Commission approved an inmate confinement agreement with CoreCivic, Inc. during its meeting Wednesday morning to house county inmates at a rate of $66.48 per detainee per day.
The rate remains unchanged from the current contract, which runs through October 26, 2028.
The agreement includes an annual inflationary adjustment capped at 2.5% or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower.
The original contract contained the same inflationary factor provisions, ensuring rate stability over the life of the agreement.
CoreCivic owns and operates the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, which houses approximately 850 inmates, including about 700 held on immigration violations under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The county acts as a fiscal agent in the ICE contract arrangement.
The facility employs about 100 county residents and expends approximately $8 million annually in salaries and benefits. In Estancia, CoreCivic and the facility comprise about two-thirds of the town’s Gross Receipts Tax revenue.
The facility has faced criticism from immigrant and civil rights groups over alleged inhumane living conditions, abuse of detainees, understaffing and lack of transparency.
State Sen. Antionette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, testified in August about witnessing internet outages that prevented detainees from accessing legal counsel, restrooms that smelled like sewage and a men’s room with feces on the floor during her volunteer work at the facility.
Critics also say the county’s arrangement with CoreCivic functions as a loophole allowing private companies to avoid disclosure requirements that are part of the bidding process for federal contracts.
Torrance County Manager Jordan Barela acknowledged the county’s oversight is limited because CoreCivic owns the facility, but said he and county commissioners have toured it on multiple occasions and have not observed poor treatment of detainees. He said some maintenance issues, including a lack of running water earlier this year, were related to aging infrastructure throughout Torrance County rather than solely the detention facility.
Legislation to ban local governments from entering into such agreements has been debated in the state Legislature. House Bill 9 passed the New Mexico House of Representatives during the 2025 regular session but was not taken up by the Senate Judiciary Committee before the session ended.
